Chapter 4

Alec woke up to the unusual sound and smell of frying bacon. Was Jace up already? He rolled over to the side and looked at the clock. It was 8am. Jace was so often up early, but he never cooked- unless you count making cereal occasionally. If Jace really was in cooking, he needed to see, and possibly take pictures. Alec rolled out of bed, his baggy black shirt hanging loose. He stretched out his arms and walked barefoot into their kitchen, where sure enough Jace stood over the stove, a tea towel over his shoulder and a pan in his hand. Alec stood open mouthed. "Jace? Are you cooking?"

"Don't act so surprised! Of course I'm cooking." He said nonchalantly.

"But you never cook…"

"Yes I do."

"No you don't." Alec walked up to him, and looked over his shoulder at the bacon sizzling in the pan.

"Oh. Well if that IS the case, remind me to do so more in future. I'm a wonderful cook if I do say so myself." Jace seemingly talking to himself again, as he so often did when he got full of himself. His ego was big enough as it was thought Alec. Alec walked to the fridge and poured himself some orange juice.

"So what's the occasion?" He took a sip of his orange juice, still quite sleepy.

"If a man wants to cook himself and his adopted brother some bacon does that mean that there's an occasion?" Jace asked, but it seemed to be a rhetorical question, however Alec knew Jace enough to know that there was always a reason with Jace. Always another motive.

"There's always an occasion with you Jace, especially when you do something out of the ordinary." Alec sighed, rubbing his eyes again. He downed his juice and stood up again.

"Well remind me to be more spontaneous in future. I hate being predictable." There was a pause as he flipped the bacon. "but there is a reason I'm cooking. I've invited Clary and Izzy over for breakfast." Alec stopped in his tracks.

"You what?"

"So I am unpredictable… I invited Izzy and Clary over for breakfast." Jace repeated.

"No, I heard that part. I just want to know why?" Alec turned to look at his golden haired brother, who was already completely dressed and washed. He wore smart black skinny jeans, and a fitted burgundy tee, displaying his muscular upper arms, though like Alec at this current moment in time, still barefoot.

"Because when I was showing Clary into the apartment yesterday, I noticed your sister didn't have any food in…. and Izzy would probably try cooking for Clary and we don't want her scaring off, or dying when she's just got here." Jace hunched his shoulders over the stove, and then flipped the bacon out onto the plate. "I'd go and get dressed. They'll be here in a minute."

Alec shook his head as he walked back to his room. Jace was unpredictable. Out of all of Izzy's roommates, he'd never gone into this much effort. Shrugging it off as nothing, because he of all people knew how bad his sisters cooking was, he went to get changed. Taking another look at the clock, he had 1 hour before he had to be at university. Alec studied Law and history, two hard subjects in which he took delight, and which made his parents proud. He was the only one of their two and a half children (not including their younger brother Max) who was at university. Isabelle never applied as she already had a job doing some minor modelling, and Jace had already decided that school wasn't for him- infact it didn't seem that work was for him either. Alec got changed, and combed his messy hair (which unsurprisingly didn't really have any effect) and brushed his teeth. He grabbed his bag and laptop from his desk and walked back into the kitchen/diner/living room. "Ah and so the prodigal son appears." Izzy chimed. "Ready for another day at school?" Alec raised an eyebrow at her, before pushing her feet off the table.

"Manners Isabelle." Izzy's feet hit the floor, and she stuck out her tongue. Jace was still hunched over the stove, frying eggs now, and Clary sat at the tiny kitchen table looking very uncomfortable.

Clary had woke at 7:15am. Usually she had no problem with early starts, but the late night and the arrival of Isabelle at 3am had really taken it out on Clary. She sat there yawning, and probably would of slept a while longer if it wasn't for Jace's persistent knocking on the door. She'd rolled out of bed- still able to hear Isabelle's snores from across the hall. Clary had rushed to the door in her old pyjamas and there Jace stood, fully dressed (to both Clary's relief and disappointment). "I didn't wake you did I?" Jace asked as Clary opened the door. She just stared at him. "Oh, sorry." He apologised. "Anyway, now you're up I wondered if you'd like to come over the hall for some breakfast-"

"Right now?" Clary interrupted, wide eyed.

"No, in a little while." He took a step towards Clary, leaning down slightly to whisper in her ear. "You should know that Isabelle is the worst cook around, and you should try to avoid eating her food for as long as you possibly can." He leaned back with a smirk.

"Okay." She said. "We'll be over in a little while." Clary shut the door in Jace's face, leaving him smiling.

She dug into her breakfast with vigour. The bacon was just right- not to crispy or too flimsy. The egg was fried on both sides and the toast was crunchy. Jace could cook. Herself, Isabelle, Jace and Alec sat at the table eating in silence. She watched the silent Alec- who had barely said a word to her, check his watch. "Oh shi-"

"Manners Alec!" Isabelle cut in, looking pleased with herself that she'd managed to get one back at him.

"I have to go." He jumped up and grabbed his coat. Clary watched him run out the door and into the hall slamming the door behind him.

"Where's Alec off to?" Clary looked puzzled, nibbling on a piece of toast.

"School." Jace stretched out on his chair, his long legs reaching all the way under the table to the other side.

"Oh, what's he study?" she asked Jace inquisitively, however it was Isabelle to answer.

"History and Law. The two most boring subjects ever to exist."

"In your opinion Izzy, Alec seems to like them."

"He just wants to please mom and dad. I think dad was the one who suggested he take them." She rolled her eyes. Clary sat and watched them talk.

"So Clary, what are you going to do with your days in the city?" Jace turned to her.

She gulped. "I'm going hunting for a job today. Hopefully I was going to take some night classes down at the university too." She picked up her mug of tea.

"Oh, I might come with you. Give you a tour." Jace looked thoughtful.

"Do you not have to work or something?" Clary asked. Jace was about to answer but Izzy cut in.

"Jace? Work?" She snorted with laughter. He shot daggers at the beautiful black haired girl.

"I like to think of it as searching for my true calling" Clary noted his expression. It was like he loved hearing the sound of his own voice.

"How about you Isabelle? Do you have a calling?" Clary used her fingers, to indicate quotation marks around the word calling, making Jace turn his daggers away from Izzy and back onto her.

"Well I don't have a calling, but I do have a job." She raised an eyebrow at Jace. "I'm a model." She smiled. Clary wondered how she didn't see it before. Of course Izzy was a model, she was the most beautiful girl Clary had ever seen with long spidery legs and symmetrical features, making her impossibly pretty, making Clary felt somewhat jealous of her new roommate.

Tell me what you think of the Alec focus! Please please review!