Reasons Disclosed to the Public
"You and Isabelle, have the two of you ever dated?" Clary asked Jace, saying the first thing that popped into her head.
Jace looked up at her, the color draining out of his face. Not this question, not now. Not when he felt so much for her, don't bring back those memories. "Isabelle?" He stated without any emotion, the old memories that still surfaced whenever he talked to Isabelle clouded his mind.
Jace Wayland was fourteen. It had been four years since his father was murdered right in front of him. Four years since he had moved into the Institute with the Lightwoods and Hodge. They were nice to him, they treated him like he was a part of their family for the most part, but Jace still never felt at home.
His mother had died after he was born. That's what his father had told him. He didn't even know her name. Not that it mattered anyway, she was dead. And never coming back. He'd never had any friends before moving from his home in Idris to the New York Institute. He said he didn't need any friends other than his father. But he knew better than that. No one had ever offered him friendship as a child. Which was possibly a contributing factor as to why he was so nasty and bitter now.
Robert and Maryse Lightwood had three children: Alec, Isabelle, and Max. Alec was fifteen, Isabelle had just turned fourteen, and Max was seven. Isabelle and Alec were the closest Jace had ever had to friends, but sometimes, they felt more like family than friends.
Alec was smart, but he wasn't as brave as Jace. He wouldn't step up and kill a demon, even if it was right in front of him. That's was Jace and Isabelle did. Jace admired her and her determination to finish what she started, and her desire to kill demons with him. She was pretty, Jace had to admit. She was just a few inches shorter than him, but she always wore heels, so she was about his height. She had long brown hair that was so dark it almost looked black, along with stunning blue eyes that matched her brother's. She was more than pretty, she was beautiful, and there was no doubt in anyone's mind that Izzy knew this.
Over the first year or so, when Jace started to actually talk to them on a regular basis, he found that they were actually pretty easy to get along with. He also discovered that it wasn't even hard to start up a conversation with Isabelle, she was actually starting them herself sometimes. And though Jace would never admit it, he was actually starting to like her. Not just like her, but like her. And sometimes, he could almost see her looking at him the way he looked at her.
It was the first day of summer four years after he had moved in with them, and quite possibly the hottest day in the history of Manhattan. It was completely unexpected and spontaneous, like most of the things Izzy did, but to Jace, it was amazing nevertheless.
They had been planning on going out demon hunting; Jace, Alec and Izzy, but then Alec had suddenly gotten sick. Izzy had insisted on staying with Alec to make sure he was okay, seeing as Robert and Maryse had gone with Max to Idris. However, Alec wouldn't allow this, and stayed behind with Hodge, while Jace and Isabelle went to hunt demons.
They were in a warehouse department of downtown Manhattan, when Jace's sensor went off. It was only mild activity, but it meant that there was a small or weak demon somewhere over here. They finally found it, and cornered it in an alley. It was trapped. Upon further inspection, it was a ravener demon, it's ugly body made it impossible to not be able to identify it.
Jace pulled out two seraph blades, one for each hand, naming them Sidriel and Gabriel. Meanwhile, Izzy unwound her whip from her wrist, and pulled a seraph blade out of her pocket as well, naming it Kafziel. The two of them closed in on the demon, and when it started to advance on them, getting ready to attack, Jace threw the first of his seraph blades into the demon's midsection. It made a sound that would be a scream, if it was human. Izzy flicked her wrist, letting the whip sail through the air, leaving a deep line down the ravener's body, oozing with it's black blood. It hissed and sprang to attack again, but both Izzy and Jace had thrown their last seraph blades at the demon, and they both hit it, and successfully killed it.
As the demon flickered out of this world and back into whatever realm it came from, Izzy cleaned off the ravener's blood on her pants. Once it was cleaned, she wound it back onto her wrist and turned towards Jace.
"Good job." He said, his breathing still heavy from running across the district and fighting the demon.
"You too." Isabelle said, her voice still as breathy as Jace's was.
Jace ran his fingers through his hair, looking over at the Hudson River. "So why do you suppose the ravener was here, or was it just here because it wanted to see my incredibly good looks?" He asked Izzy, closing his eyes as the breeze from the river blew through his hair.
"Obviously not. We both know that I'm the one with the incredibly good looks." Izzy said, flipping her hair over her shoulder.
Jace opened his eyes and looked at her. She was a lot closer to him than she had been before. "I'm finding that incredibly hard to be-" Jace started to say, but he was cut off when Isabelle leaned in to kiss him.
It was Jace's first kiss from a girl, ever. His very first kiss. It wasn't like how people said it was in books, or how it looked in movies. There were no fireworks, no sparks, nothing. It wasn't impressive at all. It was just a normal kiss, except it was from the prettiest girl he knew. Not he he would let her know that it was his first kiss. For all she knew because of his cocky attitude, back in Idris he had been the little boy who ran around kissing little girls because he thought it would be fun to see their expressions.
Determined to make himself seem as experienced as ever at kissing, Jace kissed her back. When she kissed him, it had been short and sweet, not overly heated or crushing, just, a kiss. But when Jace kissed her back it was sloppy and rushed. Izzy had pulled back.
"You know," she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "For how cute you are, and how attractive I find you, kissing you isn't all that great."
"So you are admitting you find me attractive." Jace said, ginning his signature grin.
Isabelle smacked his arm lightly. "Don't take it to your head, asshole, I didn't say your the most attractive person I've met."
Jace grinned at her. "But you did admit you find me attractive."
"Yeah, but kissing you is weird. I know you too well."
"Touche." Jace stated, determined to not let the rejection sink in. "You weren't that great of a kisser anyways."
"It's not a loss, neither are you." Isabelle said, forcing a smile onto her face. She didn't like being rejected, and she didn't like it when her rejections bounced back onto her.
The two of them walked back to the Institute in an awkward silence, only broken when they got to the giant doors of the Institute. Isabelle turned to Jace. "We speak of what happened to no one." She stated simply.
"My lips are sealed." Jace said as he opened the doors and pushed the button for the elevator.
"Jace?" Clary asked him, drawing him back out of his memories and into the present.
"Sorry, I got a little sidetracked, thinking about my reflection in the glass over there." He said, blowing a kiss to his reflection. "The answer is no. Realistically, either me or her have at some point considered it because of our ravishing good looks, but Isabelle is practically my sister. It would be too awkward." Jace said, practically lying through his teeth. At least the last part of what he said was the truth. He found it hard to lie to Clary, especially on her birthday.
"So then, you and Isabelle never.." Clary started to ask. She was so stupid sometimes, didn't she get that no meant no?
"Never." Jace stated simply, grateful for his ability to lie so well.
A/N: YAY! ITS SUMMER! :D Ahaha aside from that, I apologize for jumping between calling Isabelle Izzy and Isabelle so often. The italicized part is Jace's flashback. I pretty much recreated the Midnight flower scene, but I didn't use any of Cassandra Clare's stuff, just the basis of what happens. Totally made up the flashback, so if it's similar, then yeahs. Enjoys and review please? Chyeahs! (: