I've made progess with 13th chapter and I'm very happy with it. But you'll have to wait for drama. That comes in next chapter. This one is the one that reminds you that having periods in stories is important representation and it should be featured in books more often. And it also has some Will POV. ;)
Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy it.
Will turned his coat collar up to protect himself a bit from the snow. He'd been out for several hours and he felt like he had enough strolling around streets.
He passed the Piccadilly Circus and decided to walk alongside the river bank. Will sauntered the entire city and remembered every corner of every street. The river bank was his favourite place, it was quiet, except for the sound of Thames' soft waves.
He felt almost like a character from Frankenstein. Tall and dark with demons that threatened to kill everyone he loved. And the weather just added the atmosphere. Cold, but instead of thunderstorm he got snow. And no wind.
Will spun left and went in the direction of Whitechapel. There was still enough yin fen in Jem's box, but he didn't want to return to the Institute yet. Buying the drug postponed him from returning.
He wasn't worried about Jem. Will had no doubts his parabatai was now in a company of another person. A girl. And a whore at that. He laughed quietly. If someone told him three weeks ago Jem would seek company of a prostitute, he would have laughed at them. Jem was shy, he didn't like East End, but felt pity towards poor children. When it came to women, he simply adverted his gaze. Once one of the women tried to drag him away, telling him how cute he was and that she'd show him things. Will saved him from that fate, but he couldn't supress his smirk looking at Jem's face. He was redder than his formal waistcoat for celebrations like Christmas.
True, Ayaka was a Shadowhunter and Jem appeared to have taken pity on her. He had watched them train from a beam secretly. She was good. But it was evident she hadn't practiced in years. Honestly, he didn't wasn't to call her a slut. He was jealous and frustrated. And he didn't want Jem to be hurt by her. Jem deserved better.
Will halted when he rounded a corner and hid himself immediately. He'd seen that man who almost killed them because of her. Mr. Mizushima, his new lackeys and another man in expensive clothes that made him stand out in the environment. They were in front of the Ifrit den.
Damn it!
"–goes well, Mr. Mortmain," Mizushima laughed and shook Mortmain's hand.
So, this is Mortmain, Will thought. He looks less impressive than I imagined.
"Yes, I hope," said Mortmain. "So far everything works but some things need more attention. Which reminds me," he pulled out his pocket watch, "I need to go. And I'm sure you have things to attend to as well."
Mizushima let out a deep breath and folded his arms across his chest.
"Unfortunately. If that little bitch," Will almost chocked on his saliva, "didn't run away with Nephilim, things would have gone easier."
Mortmain gripped his shoulder in what Will guessed was support.
"She will be returned to you. Don't worry about that," Mortmain sneered in conspiring manner. Mizushima knew what he meant and nodded.
They all walked over to their carriages and drove away. Will waited in the alley for at least ten minutes to make sure no one stayed behind. Then he went and knocked on the den's door.
The woman always answered the knocking. She looked almost the same as the last time he saw her. Black hair, kohl rimmed eyes and mouth painted red. She wore black dress this time, her corset was pushing her bosom up more than was necessary. He noticed her forked black and white tail swinging behind her.
"Tiffany!" he greeted her with a grin and let himself in.
She stopped him once he'd closed the door. Tiffany ran her finger over his chest.
"Some mundanes 've been asking for ya," she said.
"Of course they were," he continued beaming at her, hiding his terror. Mizushima and Mortmain weren't just interested in Ayaka anymore. "Look at me. Who wouldn't be asking for this?" he pointed at his face and wiggled his eyebrows seductively.
Tiffany snorted.
"The usual?" she asked from behind her lashes.
"Yea," he nodded and followed her.
"Shame you didn't bring your friend," she whispered and placed a hand on his chest to stop him when they walked into a large room with dark red walls.
Will shrugged, seemingly unaffected by her words, but inside he wished he could snap her neck.
"Why would they be looking for a Nephilim?"
Tiffany had a parcel full of Jem's drug but didn't give it to him. Will pulled out a sufficient amount of money and gave them to her. She handed him the parcel after counting the money.
"They didn't say?" he tried to hide his surprise and instead made himself sound more curious.
"No," Tiffany shook her head.
"Hmm…"
Will shrugged and left to avoid other questions and comments from the warlock woman.
Will brushed snow off his coat when he stepped inside the Institute. He walked straight to Jem's room.
His silver-haired parabatai was in his bed awake. He was pale but flushed in cheeks.
Will stopped himself at the doorway.
"You're reading?"
Jem looked up from the papers he'd been holding and smiled. "Music." He stretched out his arm to show him trembling fingers. "I can't play with these so I'm just reading what I would play."
Will nodded and stepped in, closed the door behind him and sat down on a chair by the window. He ran his fingers through his wet hair and sighed.
"I have enough of yin fen, William."
"I know but it doesn't harm to buy some more… just in case," he placed the parcel on the desk.
"Anything interesting happened tonight?" asked Jem as he put down the music sheets.
He didn't ask Will about his whereabouts but Will would have told him anyway what he'd seen and heard.
"Actually, yes," Will cleared his throat and crossed his legs. "My tale begins when my beautiful blue eyes beheld two dark figures in a–" he stopped when he noticed Jem's can-you-please-stop look. "Fine. I saw Mizushima and Mortmain talking about things working out," he said in a more sober manner. "Like they're preparing something. And they mentioned that girl," Will jerked his head in the general direction of her bedroom. Jem frowned but Will continued quickly before he was interrupted. "The woman in the ifrit den said they'd been asking for me."
"Ayaka, which is her name by the way," Will rolled his eyes, "mentioned something similar. She felt like they were planning something."
The dark-haired boy stayed quiet. Jem was stabbing him with his eyes.
"Why would you call her that?" he asked.
"I don't know, it just slipped," Will bowed his head so he wouldn't have to look at his only friend.
Jem sighed. "Just don't be so mean to her next time. We all have our burdens here and it's not fair if you can't control yours."
Ayaka woke up with a dull pain in her lower abdomen and coppery tang around her. She groaned and clutched her stomach. Now that she started eating healthier, her period returned. In full force.
She sat up and glanced at the white sheets. They were soaked with blood at the spot where her bottom was.
Ayaka smacked her face with a pillow.
"Kuso*! This is so embarrassing," she murmured into the pillow.
She wondered when would Sophie come knocking. Ayaka decided to pull the string near her bed and hoped she was where she could hear the bell. In the meantime, she'd been hugging her belly, rocking back and forth, and hoping for the pain to go away soon.
Minutes passed, she had heard other residents waking up much to her dismay. She didn't want them to know what was wrong.
Sophie arrived and quickly closed the door. She was breathing fast and that made Ayaka feel even worse. She'd rushed the poor girl.
"I'm sorry, Sophie. You look busy but I just…"
Sophie eyed Ayaka carefully. She was pale and sweaty. She held her stomach and glanced at Sophie with guilty expression. She had to smile at that. Jessamine never looked guilty when her monthly cycle hit her. Disgusted would have been better word for summarising Jessamine's opinion of the whole thing. She'd been twice as unbearable as usual, but Sophie had got used to it.
"Miss, it's completely all right," she assured her. "I'll take the sheets and go for some water."
Ayaka reluctantly got up and stood awkwardly while Sophie took the dirty sheet off the bed. Then Sophie gave her another nightgown and Ayaka changed behind the screen so that she wouldn't have to stand naked in her room. Sophie left with the huddled white mess but didn't forget to give Ayaka a reassuring smile.
Ayaka bathed herself and dressed in a nightgown. Sophie helped her into a belt with strings that held a clean pad in place. Ayaka just stared what she was doing and couldn't believe such thing existed. She even asked questions that made Sophie blush so she decided to drop the subject. Instead she asked her to tell Jem they can't train today. When Ayaka was back in bed, Sophie went to tell Agatha to cook something to soothe the cramps.
When she finished eating hummus with bread, Sophie took the tray back to the kitchen.
Jem finished his breakfast as the last one. Charlotte had gone to the kitchen. He heard them talking.
"As fine as she can be," replied Sophie. "She ate everything and I'll bring her water. She needs to drink a lot."
They were probably talking about Ayaka. He'd been surprised she cancelled today's training, it was strange because she enjoyed practicing with him. Sophie hadn't wanted to tell him what was wrong with her, just that she had a stomachache.
Weird. A stomachache. Did Shadowhunters get those? He didn't remember one time he had a mundane sickness. Not even as a child.
He went to his room and waited until he heard Ayaka's surprisingly weak voice saying, "That's all, thank you, Sophie. I don't want to bother you with more stuff."
He heard Sophie's footsteps down the hall and eventually silence. Jem opened the door and looked in both directions. Will was in a library, rummaging through some mundane newspapers to investigate on Mizushima and Mortmain. Jem had promised he would join him.
He glanced from her door to the end of the corridor leading to the library. He decided he should let Ayaka rest.
"Have you found anything?" Jem asked Will when he found him sitting by the big table in the centre of the library.
"Nothing new. Newspapers make people believe he's the perfect gentleman," Will scoffed.
Jem sat down next to him and skimmed through articles as well. Will was right, there was nothing he didn't know already. The only interesting thing was that there was no mention of a niece. It made sense since she was a Shadowhunter and her identity was supposed to be a secret but there was nothing about his family. Only that he was rich Japanese businessman that travelled to California, then to England after joining Mortmain and Co. Jem found in one short article that Mr. Mizushima wanted to "bring the rich taste of green tea to the western world." He couldn't help supressing a snort. Will glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. Jem told him.
"I'm sure tea is what he has in mind."
After half an hour of reading useless newspapers, Jem decided to give himself a break and try to find some information about stomachaches.
Will's eyes followed him as he started looking at the spines of books.
"What are you looking for?" he asked him.
"Ayaka has a stomachache and I think it's strange."
"Why?" Will tried not to roll his eyes over his parabatai's foolery. "I had a stomachache once when I ate a spoilt egg."
Jem spun from a bookcase to look at Will with incredulous expression. "Why would you do that?"
"It was a bet," Will shrugged.
Jem sighed. "I doubt she ate something she shouldn't, unlike you. Besides, you said you only had a stomachache once. I never even had one in my life. Which means, it's something Shadowhunters don't get, which makes me believe there's something fishy about it."
"You think she might have eaten a fish? From Thames perhaps? That would definitely make her sick. Of course, in the case there were any fish in Thames."
Jem banged his head into a shelf.
"Just tell me where can I find any medical books of some sort and I'll leave you alone."
Will rose from his chair and smiled cheerfully. "Oh, you don't have to leave me alone. I'll help you with it," he walked past the bookcase and Jem followed him. "Still better than reading about mundane business."
Henry had been making Ayaka a gift. He'd used one of the old fans from Charlotte that she didn't even touch. It was deep red with flowers painted on it. He had inserted it with blades so whenever she needed a weapon she would just spread out the fan and press a small button. Jem's cane had been very fascinating to him and he remembered the first time he studied the mechanics of it. Then he'd thought of Jessamine's parasol and wanted to make something for Ayaka too. Charlotte might have mentioned when was her birthday but he forgot.
The wooden door of his crypt opened with a creak and he turned around. The moment Henry saw his wife, he smiled and she smiled back. She was so beautiful and since that night he was assured she loved him, he reminded her of that at least once a day.
"Lunch is ready," she announced and stood expectedly at the door.
Henry put down the fan and walked over to his wife. He bent down and kissed her tenderly. She smiled into the kiss and touched his cheeks.
"Henry, the lunch," she managed to remind him between the kisses.
Her husband groaned but let her go reluctantly. Charlotte stood up on her tip toes to glance behind his shoulder.
"What are you inventing this time?" she asked.
"I'm making a present for Ayaka… for birthday. When is her birthday?"
Charlotte chuckled and answered, "In February but she didn't say the exact date. I'd have to ask her."
"And what is today's date?"
"The first of December," she told him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Henry held her by the waist and kissed her forehead. "My sweet Lottie," he murmured against her skin.
"I have to go and find Will and Jem. Angel knows what they're doing. I had told them to look through newspapers and find something about Ayaka's uncle but I'm sure they gave up on that already."
"So… every woman has to bleed? Every month?" asked Will with mouth wide open.
"Look," Jem pointed at one passage in another book they had found, "here it says that it's because Eve sinned and now every woman has to pay for it. That's so cruel, don't you think?"
"It's a religious article, Jem. It doesn't have to mean it's true," Will glanced at the book sceptically.
"Nevertheless, it must hurt a lot when she cancelled our training. But I never noticed such things with Charlotte or Jessamine."
"Jessamine has been weird since the day she was born, and Charlotte…"
"I suppose it's different for every woman," Jem concluded quickly.
"Well, it's only for five or so days… and maybe she'll be better tomorrow," Will tried to cheer Jem up when he noticed his glum face.
Someone cleared their throat behind them. Will and Jem jerked and shut the books. When they turned in their seats, they saw Charlotte with arms crossed, looking down at them with blank expression.
"What are you doing?"
"Uh…"
"Studying," replied Will.
Jem looked at him from the corner of his eye. Will was unaffected by Charlotte's presence, which to Jem appeared to be more intense than ever.
"Jem was worried about Ayaka and wanted to know why since no one told him anything."
"It's not like I asked," Jem hissed at the dark-haired boy and felt a heat rising in his face.
"It's time for lunch," that was all Charlotte said.
The boys got up and Will turned to Charlotte with a smirk.
"I have a few questions though."
He never managed to say anything more because Jem dragged him out of the library quickly. Charlotte shook her head and went to the kitchen to ask Sophie to bring the meal to Ayaka.
Jem knocked on her door tentatively after everyone finished their lunch and went their own ways. Will had told Jem to meet in the training room in an hour. He had enough time to check on Ayaka. No one answered the knocking so he invited himself in despite his better judgement.
Ayaka was buried in blankets and pillows, he saw empty plate on a tray on the bedside table. Jem closed the door, fully aware how improper he was, but he couldn't stop his curiosity.
He went over to her bed and saw her sleeping face. She was pale but red in cheeks and sweat had formed on her forehead. The only thing he could see except for the head was her hand, clutching the blanket close to her body.
She must have sensed him looking, her eyelashes fluttered and whimpered.
"Jem?"
"Yes. I'm sorry I barged in like that but I wanted to make sure you were all right."
She pushed the blanket off her body, revealing her upper parts. Jem tried not to stare too much and focused on her face.
"Can you please open the window?" she asked, blinking to adjust her vision.
Jem did as she said. Ayaka sighed in relief at the cool air brushing her skin.
"Sometimes I feel hot, then cold again," she explained.
Ayaka shifted in the bed, further from the window and patted the space she'd made. Jem sat down, bed sinking a bit under his weight. She got goose flesh all over her arms from the cold early December wind that was blowing into the room. He reached for the blanket and covered her up to her shoulders. She rewarded him with a smile.
"Are you feeling better?" Jem wanted to know.
"A bit."
"Do you want me to bring you something?"
She looked at the grey sky she saw from the window and bit her lip as she was thinking. Then she glanced at the bedside table.
"Tea. If I drink more of that bland water, I might as well burst. I've been in the bathroom at least six times already. And chocolate."
Jem raised eyebrows at the last requirement and smiled afterwards.
"In the case there is chocolate," she whispered sheepishly and looked down at the white sheet.
"Let's hope Will left you some," teased Jem as he rose from the bed and picked up the tray.
"If he didn't, tell him 'hi' from me. And by 'hi' I mean a punch in the face," she grunted.
Jem laughed at her sudden change in mood and left. She seemed to be as passionate about chocolate as Will. That wasn't good.
*kuso – fuck/shit
