Random Fact: I waited forever for City of Fallen Angels to come out, but when it finally did, I couldn't make myself read it. I'm afraid that the author is going to mess up what was previously the perfect ending to the series. So keep in mind, that whatever I write in this story, I write having never read the book that tells the most about Simon and his probably-doomed-to-fail relationship with Izzy.

Two Weeks Later

"You're adorable when you're flustered." I smiled coyly up at Simon.

"That's not funny, Isabelle." He frowned. "And I'm not flustered. I just can't concentrate with you staring at me like that."

"Like what?" I asked, licking my lips.

"Like that!" He repeated. He waved his hand in my direction and tried unsuccessfully to take a step backwards. I had my arms wrapped tightly around his waist to prevent him from going anywhere.

"I have no idea what you mean." I told him.

"Isabelle." He was beginning to sound annoyed. "Do you want me to clean this cut of yours or not?"

There was a small cut on my forehead that had just stopped dripping blood. I knew if I didn't get it cleaned up and wash my hair soon, it was going to take forever to wash out, but somehow, I couldn't bring myself to care.

Instead, I pursed my lips. "You could always clean me up later." I suggested. "Right now, I have a few other ideas. Don't you want to hear them?" Simon gave an exasperated sigh, but he let me continue anyway. He always did.

"Today," I announced regally, "I am going to teach you how to flirt."

Simon's exasperated smile quickly bunched into a flat out scowl. "I already know how to flirt. I'm a teenage guy, Isabelle. And I hate to break this to you, but you're not the first girl I've dated."

I pushed away the urge to frown and gave him another coy smile. "I may not be the first girl you've dated, but I am the first girl you got past second base with." I reminded him. "Either way, your flirting skills suck."

"They do not!" He exclaimed defensively.

"Oh yeah?" I countered. "Then prove it."

"Fine." He declared. With a decisive look, he untangled my arms from around his waist and took a few steps back. I waited expectantly, but he didn't do anything. "Didn't I tell you to stop staring at me?" He challenged.

"But I couldn't help it." I simpered in reply. "Your flirting skills just absolutely had me floored."

"Haha." He said unsmilingly. "There's a reason why I'm the only one who gets to use sarcasm around here."

I was tempted to point out the reasons why he was so obviously wrong, but in the end I settled for taunting him with, "So does this mean that you give up?"

"No." He insisted. "Fine. I've got one." He took a small step forward and looked at me intently. Reaching forward, he gently picked up a strand of hair from my shoulder and played with it, twirling it around his fingers. Letting it go, he moved his hand to my cheek.

"Is this part of the flirting or are you just trying to distract me?" I said, trying not to let myself be drawn in by the feel of his soft caress against my skin.

A reluctant smile crossed his face as he admitted, "A little of both." A sudden frown marred his face as he leaned forward to peer at me. "Hey, are you wearing fake eyelashes?" He asked suddenly.

"Um, no." My eyebrows bunched together as I frowned. What kind of question was that? I had never worn fake eyelashes in my life. Okay, maybe once. Or twice. But those were times that both Alec and Jace were forbidden to speak of. Explicitly. I gave Simon a look that clearly demanded to know what was going on in that crazy little vampire head of his.

"Really?" Simon looked kind of puzzled. "Are you sure?" I nodded, still looking at him incredulously. "Okay," His face was only a few inches away from mine as he gazed closely at me. "Close your eyes so that I can see."

Skeptically, I did as he asked.

I could practically feel him leaning closer to me, and all of the sudden, it clicked. I knew exactly what he was doing, and I felt kind of stupid for falling for it. His lips met mine, and I couldn't resist the urge to smirk.

"Nice try," I whispered against his lips. "But using a cheesy pick-up line to get me to kiss you doesn't count as flirting."

"Watch your mouth, Isabelle." He whispered back. "That statement would surely count as blasphemy in Eric's universe. It might even cause his whole world to collapse." He leaned away flippantly, and I wasn't sure whether he was trying to distract me or he had seriously forgotten that he was about to kiss me only a few seconds ago.

"Who cares about Eric?" Excuse me if I was annoyed by the fact that my boyfriend would rather talk about his band mates than kiss me.

"Without him, we'd have to find a new drummer." Simon pointed out. "And then we'd have to have auditions."

"Sounds absolutely dreadful."

Simon ignored my blase tone and kept talking. "We've been trying to come up with an official band name again. What do you think of Inconsistent Smirk?"

I screwed up my face in a frown. "Why would anyone want to listen to a band with the word inconsistent in the title? And what does this have to do with anything anyway?"

"How about Metallic Death Trap? That was Matt's suggestion."

"Even I could come up with a better name than that." I told him disdainfully. Really, it wasn't that hard to come up with something that didn't completely suck. "What's next? Cancer of Purge?"

"My suggestion was actually City of the Unholy." He corrected. "Because of… you know, my condition. But I doubt you could think of anything better."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Want to bet?"

"Sure." He swiped a hand through his hair, somehow making the seemingly normal gesture look adorable. "I'm game. You up for it?"

"Wait, what do I get when I win?"

Simon gave me a dubious look. "Don't you mean what do I get when I win?" He countered.

I gave him a don't-be-dense look in return. Ignoring his intended meaning, I took the words at face value. "That's what I said, isn't it?" Walking over to my bed and throwing myself onto the mattress, I laid on my stomach with my head propped up on my hands. "Are you going to answer the question or are we going to play a game of semantics here?"

"Semantics?" Simon's nerdy side seemed to perk up. "Where'd you learn a word like that?"

"Same place I learned a lot of things." I said easily. "A little here… a little there—"

"If the next thing you're going to say is that you get around, please stop there." Simon suggested.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "That is so not what I was going to say." I informed him haughtily. "I was going to say that I pick up on things. And then, I was going to remind you that you have yet to inform me of the stakes of our bet."

"Fair point." Simon admitted. "How about… if you win, I kiss you. I win, you kiss me."

I cocked an eyebrow. "How is it a bet if I get the same thing whether I win or lose?" I drawled.

"How about this then: if you win, I'll take you out to that fancy restaurant you like so much." I leaned forward and propped my chin on my hand, suddenly interested.

"I'm listening." I grinned.

Simon grinned back. Unlike my expression, I had a feeling it wasn't because he was happy. In fact, he looked kind of devious. "If I win, you have to come to one of my band practices."

I pulled a face. There was no way that I was going to sit through an hour or so of Eric being his stupid womanizing self and the rest of the band doing whatever the rest of the band did. They probably sucked. Except for Simon, of course. Because he's not an idiot. "Deal." I agreed.

This competition suddenly got a lot more interesting.

"Am I invisible?" He asked suddenly.

I looked at Simon like he was crazy, wondering where his sudden question had come from.

"No," I decided to play along just to see what he would come up with. "Why?"

Simon just smiled a wry but enigmatic smile. "So you can see me?"

"Yes."

"How about tomorrow night?"

I felt a smile come unbidden to my face. Ah, another pick up line. And that one was actually cute. Cheesy of course, but cute nevertheless. "Come here." I told him.

Simon raised his eyebrows, but decided not to question it. I leaned in for what was supposed to be a quick kiss but soon turned into a steamy makeout session. By the time we came up for air, Simon probably had more of my lipstick on his face than I did.

"Hey, what do you want t…?" I started to ask, but I trailed off when I realized that he wasn't listening. One minute he was looking at me like he was ready to devour me, and the next, his attention was on something completely different. He was staring at my floor as if he were transfixed.

I clambered off the bed to go see what he was on about, and I was tempted to let out a laugh when I realized what it was.

"Simon?" I asked in an attempt to get his attention. "Can you please tell me why you're staring at my bra?" I picked the offending item up from the floor and held it in front of his face. "It's not like you haven't seen one of these before."

He reached out and grasped it by one strap. "Sorry, it's just… lavender? With hot pink polka dots?" He licked his lips in a seemingly unconscious gesture.

I smirked. "Really, Simon? If I wasn't so sure you liked me, I'd be a little worried about your fixation with the colors of my bra."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He demanded, dropping said bra on the bed.

"Nothing." I said a little too innocently. "It's just that Magnus has a certain fondness for bright colors. And you know how he's…"

"Gay?" Simon finished for me.

"Exactly."

He snorted a laugh. "I don't think you have any worries in that department." Taking me by the hand, he drew me towards the bed. "I am very straight. And very into you." So saying, he dropped onto the bed and pulled me into his lap. His arms went around me and our lips met in a way that was very, very satisfying.

Right then, Simon's phone started vibrating in his pocket beneath my leg. Not now, I sighed. I let out a noise that was probably very close to a growl before digging the phone out of his pocket. I debated whether or not to answer it when Clary's name appeared on the screen. Finally, I snatched it up and hit the answer button.

"Hey, Clary!" I said in falsely cheerful voice.

"Give me that!" Simon snatched at the phone. I scrambled across the bed to get away from him, holding the phone just out of reach.

"This isn't Clary." A very masculine voice informed me.

"Oh. Well, what do you want?" Cell phones were very handy but annoying mundane devices. I had always kind of wanted one ever since Simon had explained them to me, but now I was rethinking that decision. If people were going to interrupt kissing sessions with pointless phone calls, what was the point of having a phone?

"Is that any way to speak to your future brother-in-law?" The person on the other side responded. There was no mistaking that tone.

"Future brother-in-law?" I repeated innocently. "Who are you and why are you marrying Jace?"

Simon's efforts to take the phone ceased as suddenly as I said those words. He stared at me as if I had gone insane. "Who is that?" He whispered loudly. "Are you sure that's Clary?" I waved him off.

Magnus let out a disdainful noise. "Cute, Isabelle."

"I thought it was." I smirked. Simon went back to reaching ineffectively for the phone. "So, why do you have Clary's phone anyway?"

"She gave it to me." Magnus replied as if it were obvious. "Told me to call you while Alec babysits her boyfriend."

"Hey!" A voice in the back ground objected loudly. "I don't need babysitting."

Magnus let out a low chuckle. "Yes, he does." He said to me. To Jace, he added, "Say hello to Isabelle, blondie."

"Isabelle!" Jace shouted through the phone. "Hello?"

"Calm down, Jace." I told him. "I'm right here."

"Isabelle?" He repeated. I heard a sudden smacking sound, almost like he was banging the phone against something. "Magnus, I don't think this thing works! Isabelle isn't coming out of it."

Apparently Magnus wasn't aware that Jace didn't know what a telephone was, much less a cell phone. Shadowhunters were old fashioned in ways that Downworlders and mundanes hadn't been for centuries. In Alicante, the capitol of Idris, we didn't even have cars.

"Sorry about that." Magnus's voice came through the earpiece.

"Was there a reason you called?" I queried. "A reason besides letting Jace harass me? Because I was a little busy before…" I wasn't in the mood to banter with any of my siblings or their significant others. I just wanted to kiss my boyfriend and forget about killing demons for a little while.

"Yes, yes." Magnus cut me off. "I'm well aware that you are with the vampire. It's his phone that Clary had me call, after all."

"Do I need to give him a message?"

"No, actually Clary wanted him to give you a message, but this works even better. Now I don't have to wait for you to get back to him. I can just…"

"The message?" I cut his long-winded speech short.

"Oh, yeah," Magnus remembered. "Maryse and Robert want to talk to you kids, Clary included."

Great. A family meeting. We had successfully avoided having one of those in a while, so I guess that meant we were due for one. Family meetings could mean tons of things. Mom and Dad could be giving us a mission, suggesting we move back to Idris (again), or (most likely) berating Jace for carelessness and telling the rest of us to stop him if he got too reckless. They did that last one every few months and never seemed to realize it was impossible to keep Jace in check.

"Is Simon included too?" I asked. Moral support in the form of my fanged boyfriend was always good.

"Guess," was Magnus's only response.

I took that as a no. "He can wait here. I'll be down in a few." I replied before hanging up.

Tossing the phone on the bed, I realized that Simon had quit trying to take it and was watching me expectantly. "Now do I get to know who called me?" He wanted to know.

"Maybe." I said sweetly. "Maybe not."

"Isabelle." Simon said his tone a warning.

"Why do always have to spoil my fun?" I pouted. He gave me a no nonsense look that totally ruined my efforts to sulk. "Fine. Magnus called on Clary's phone. They're downstairs… or Magnus is anyway. Apparently my parents called some sort of family meeting." Only after I finished did I notice the slightly smug expression that had come over his face. "What?" I questioned.

"All that from one look." He said in a tone I usually only heard when speaking to Jace. At my confused expression, he clarified. "Not only did you to stop pretending to sulk, but you also told me everything I wanted to know."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't be conceited. That's Jace's job."

"It's nice to see how the other half lives sometimes."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes again. Between him and Jace and their musings and strange senses of humor, one day my face was going to get stuck like that. "He snores. He eats like a pig. And he had trust issues for the first seventeen years of his life. Does that make you feel any better?"

"A little." Simon admitted with a smile.

"Look, Si." I said ignoring his statement. "I'm sorry, but I have to go. Duty calls."

"Wait, are you leaving now?" He asked. I could tell that he tried not to let disappointment color his tone. He could probably tell from my smug expression that he failed.

"Just when things were heating up, too." I said apologetically. I leaned forward and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you around." I said easily and with that, I left him sitting there on my bed.

No sooner had I walked down the stairs than Magnus practically attacked me. "Isabelle! Thank God you're here!" He sounded so excited that I almost expected him to tackle-hug me.

"What's wrong?" I asked curiously.

"It's this paint color!" he exclaimed. "So wrong for this room! What was Maryse thinking when she decorated?"

I blinked twice.

Sensing my confusion, Alec got up and took Magnus by the arm, dragging him towards the couch. "Ignore him," my brother told me. "He watched this show on house designing and now he thinks he's an expert on everything."

"I am an expert!" Magnus exclaimed.

"Forget paint colors." Jace spoke up, "We have other things to talk about." He turned to look at me with an accusatory glare. "Like where you were last night, Isabelle."

"Who, me?" I said innocently.

"Yes, you." Jace lectured. "This is the second time in as many weeks you've disappeared while we were hunting. I still haven't forgiven you for last week when you abandoned us to go make nice with Simon."

"Even I was there for that." Magnus put in unhelpfully.

"Firstly," I said defensively, "no one bothered to tell me that we were supposed to go demon hunting last night. Secondly, the other time was two weeks ago. Let it go. And lastly, you guys managed just fine by yourselves." I smirked and added, "Though I do appreciate the fact that you believe this demon fighting team can't function without me."

"While the majority of what you just said is probably untrue, I'm going to let it go." Jace informed me cockily. I swear, that boy had too much confidence for his own good. "As long as you— Wait. Is that blood in your hair?"

I held a hand to my tender forehead. Oops, I had completely forgotten about that. "Oh, yeah." I remembered. "I bumped it against the corner of a cabinet when I was looking for something earlier."

Jace's lips turned up in a half-grin. "Amazing how you can go a few rounds with a demon and end up without a scratch, but a simple cabinet gets the best of you."

"Shut up." I growled at him. We were interrupted by the sound of Clary entering the room.

"I'm here." She announced, pushing the door open. "You can start now."

"You get more like me every day." Jace grinned proudly in her direction. Clary's smile disappeared. "Come on, Clary, that's a good thing!" He insisted.

I rolled my eyes. "Only if you like conceited jerks."

"Anyway," Clary interjected. She somehow managed to ignore both the simpering looks Magnus was sending Alec and the glares Jace and I were passing back and forth. "I thought Maryse and Robert had something they wanted to talk to us about."

"We do," A feminine voice interrupted from the doorway. I turned to find my parents standing side by side with equally serious looks on their faces. "Now, if you could kindly leave us, Magnus, we have something we want to discuss with the rest of you."

Inwardly, I sighed. Here we go.

Okie dokie, that's it for this chapter. Hope no one was out of character. I've been having difficulty with that lately because I haven't read the books in over a year.

Also, does anyone know what instruments the members of Simon's band play? Because I only know that Eric does drums.