For as long as Lucie can remember, she has always been incredibly observant. Being a reader of novels and poetry, had made her that way. They had made her notice thing that not everyone does. Having such sharp eyes and ears in the family, she has usually noticed things that others were oblivious to. And these observing abilities had often surprised her from time to time, that is whenever she was hit by the magnitude of obliviousness that people suffered from in their daily lives.
The people, she generally exercised her certain skills upon happened to be people she was almost everyday surrounded by , her parents, Will and Tessa, her brother James and his Parabatai Matthew and most of all her own Parabatai, Cordelia Carstairs . And among all these people there was barely any limits to the things that she saw.
Moreover, Possessing as she did, the busy brain of a writer, her mind relished in the things she noticed and at the same time, suffered from the need to tell or point out to the people the things they were missing out on or failed to acknowledge.
The fact that her Parabatai, Cordelia was in love with her brother James and her brother in his turn was in love with Grace, the ward of the mad Tatiana Blackthorn was well established since long. But as of late, there has been substantial changes within their behaviours which hadn't escaped the hawk eyes of Lucie.
She saw her best friend, Cordelia grow a little more indifferent regarding her infatuation towards her brother, recently she hasn't been sitting about at the parties as her eyes followed James's every movement. Instead, she has been dancing with young men and laughing and mixing more than she generally did before. Whatever the reason might be behind this sudden change in demeanour, Lucie was happy for her, though.
James, for his part too, was acting unusual. He had a change about him, that was quite refreshing, which even Lucie was bound to admit. He had been acting a lot like his old self, really. He was less gloomy and angry, then he had been a year ago and appeared more relaxed and free . Lucie was sure that it was quite a relief for Matthew as well, who was constantly worried about his Parabatai's well being and state of mind. And even Will and Tessa was happy about the welcome change.
All these changes brought about further changes and Lucie began to see things, her eyes would have never dreamt of seeing.
She saw the way James's eyes stayed fixed on Cordelia, when they all sat around the drawing room talking after dinner, straying only for a moment or two, to avoid getting caught by Cordelia or anyone else.
She saw the way he sat enraptured by her voice, listening to her talking about the day she'd had or the moves she'd learned at training, until his ears fell off.
She saw him finding excuses to sit beside her at the dining table during breakfast, and to help her in and out of the chair whenever she did so.
And it was hard to miss the way he leaned in as the two were having some conversation about this and that, and James felt compelled to tuck a single strand of her hair behind her ears, and to retreat his hand ever so slowly , carelessly tracing his fingers along her jaw and her neck. Or the way he played with her fingers as they talked.
She saw the way the both of them kept finding reasons to sneak away from the training room and spend hours talking and laughing in the library. And how during their training, it was James who volunteered to teach Cordelia, the new technique's of using a weapon which he had recently learned.
Lucie saw the way her brother held her Parabatai , a little too close to him, and perhaps a little too protectively as his calloused warrior's hand held her slender one's, teaching her how to hold the weapon right, his lips brushing against her ear as he advised and encouraged her.
At the parties, which were hosted by the Institute, she saw her Parabatai dancing with young men and James, looking over at her, every once in a while, from where he was dancing and thus taking the very next opportunity to ask her to dance with him, and funnily enough, once he got to her, there was no hope for any other young men of getting another chance to dance with her for the rest of the night.
She saw how when after a drunken night in the pub with his friends, James had knocked on their bedroom door (for she and Cordelia were in the her room that night, having some kind of slumber party), and Cordelia was the first one to jump out of her bed and answer the door, and upon seeing that it was James, had rushed to tend to him.
Her redheaded friend in a nightgown was the one to rub James's back as he threw up, and was the one to wash and clean and help him up to his room, and tuck him into his bed, and upon his request to stay with him till he fell asleep. And not make a sound about the events of the night to their parents. She marvelled at how her friend went as far as to make excuses in James's stead to keep everyone from encountering his hungover self the next morning at breakfast.
She saw the way the two of them had a newfound habit of defending and supporting each other during arguments.
She saw the way James read to her, the books which they loved the best, and Cordelia would lean on his shoulder as she listened to him read aloud.
Lucie saw how James was the first to comfort her when Cordelia's mother, Colette had fallen ill, and the way he held Cordelia, as she buried her head in his shoulder and cried. Her tears soaking the collar of his shirt, as he whispered comforting words and smoothed her hair consolingly. She had stopped crying eventually, and fallen asleep on his arms, so he'd carried her up to her room and put her to bed.
She had once even almost caught them kissing behind the library shelves, but they'd broken apart before she got there and kept pretending to be searching books or doing something or the other unaware that their dishevelled hair and swollen lips had already given them away.
She was almost always aware of the reason Cordelia missed breakfast on certain mornings, and wear her hair down on those certain days. Cordelia had never told her that, on those days, she was trying to hide few marks in her neck that hadn't been there previously, or who had been responsible for it. But the way her brother and her Parabatai kept exchanging looks and blushing throughout the day, she didn't need to go too far to determine the culprit.
And the times when they went out for long walks to Raziel knows where, and James would be in an incredibly good mood for the remaining part of the day. And upon being asked where they'd been, he would get a smug look in his face or she would be too red in the face to say anything. But Lucie didn't need to enquire, she'd seen enough.
However, Lucie wasn't an audience to only these happy moments either, she saw the painful one's too. The one's where Cordelia had sneaked away from the chaos and loudness of a certain Christmas party to get some quite and fresh air, and James had followed her outside, and as he saw her standing there in the cold, with snow collecting in her hair which had come undone, and had been unable to control himself any longer and had kissed her abruptly, but she had pushed him away and slapped him accros the face and run back into the house. Lucie didn't know why but later she learned that Grace Blackthorn had attended the party and didn't need anymore explanation as to what could have gone wrong.
The following day, she was forced to watch Cordelia's puffy-red eyes and the pained look on James's face as they tried to make awkward conversation. She didn't know how to fix the problem or take away their pain, it was the kind of thing that they would have to fix for themselves, for their own sake. So, she watched and hoped for a brighter future, for things to turn out for the better. And eventually they did.
Author's note: I don't own any of these characters they belong to the great Cassandra Clare. Plus if anyone's interested I just wanted to say that I'll be posting all my fics on my tumblr/blog under the name Jordelia-Heronstairs17, u can check it out. I have recently joined and wouldn't mind getting a few followers. Also if u guys have any Jordelia fic request just send me a message.