Author's Note: I'm sorry, I lied. This chapter ended up being harder to write than I thought. Please review. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own TMI/Shadowhunters or the characters.
Getting out of bed was the worst plan Jonathan thought he ever had and then he tried stretching out before training. He groaned as he reached his arm out touch his toes. The ache shooting through his muscles made him want to give up and curl up on the floor.
"That bad, huh?" Clary kicked the heel of his boot gently.
He straightened up and tried his best to hide his wince as his muscles protested. "I feel like I just went three rounds with a greater demon—which probably means nothing to you, just know I'm in a lot of pain."
"That's what you get for doing something so stupid," Clary crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at him with a disapproving expression.
Jonathan stood up and brushed his hands off on his t-shirt. "I fail to see how taking a medication for symptoms I was experiencing is dumber than walking into a vampire infested hotel without any training." Clary opened her mouth to respond but shut it when Jonathan gave her a look that dared her to question him. "That's what I thought. Now stretch out, I'm going to go set up some mats. If Jace comes in here trying to distract you tell him to go away, he's probably hiding from Alec anyway."
Clary sat down on the floor where Jonathan had been and he went to drag a couple training mats out into the middle of the floor. "Okay what is with Jace and Alec? I can't tell if they get along or not. Jace said something about Alec last night that made it seem like he looked up to Alec and then he goes and does a bunch of stuff Alec doesn't approve of. I don't get it."
The soreness in Jonathan's shoulders was getting easier to ignore the more he moved around. The mat hit the floor with a satisfying thud. "They're parabatai. It's kind of like having a best friend and fighting partner but like a thousand times more intense than that. They have to go through this whole ritual thing that basically binds their souls together. They feel when the other is hurt or dying and all that."
Clary reached out to touch her toes like Jonathan had but came up a couple inches short. Jonathan laughed at her failed attempt. "So does that make Izzy your parabatai?"
Jonathan pulled another mat out and pushed it against the other with his feet. "No," He shook his head as he tried to straighten the mats out, "That's not how it works. You don't have to have a parabatai. They're just nice to have. Runes applied by your parabatai work better, last longer, you fight better at their side, that kind of thing. Most people pick someone they're training with because the ceremony can't be performed if they're over eighteen."
"If you're going to commit to something like that wouldn't you have to get along better than Jace and Alec do?"
Jonathan was shaking his head before she finished. "Some parabatai have a relationship where they think of each other as the greatest warrior to ever live and all the gushy stuff and then there are parabatai like Jace and Alec who for all intents and purposes are brothers. They fight. They make up. They joke around. They'd kill for each other.
"You just got here at the wrong time. Usually Alec isn't so stressed—not that he's my favorite person when he's not—he's just been put in charge of the institute and kind of a high profile investigation at the same time. Investigations aren't like normal patrol, there's a lot of hoops you have to jump through. Patrol you just got out and walk around on some rooftops and check out some alleys. Investigations you have to file mission reports, get them approved, gather evidence, create a whole casefile." Jonathan was starting to bore himself trying to explain protocol.
"Basically it's a lot for Alec to handle. Jace was actually pretty helpful since there wasn't much wiggle room for him to go and do whatever he wanted. Then you showed up at Pandemonium and I heard the address you gave the cabdriver and suddenly there's a lot more interesting things for him to be doing. Jace running around on his own is just another thing Alec needs to keep track of. And then he brought you back to the institute and we realized you were my sister that no one knew about and things got even more complicated."
"Let me guess," Clary stood up and started stretching her arms out over her head, "That's why everyone is so eager to start my training? Because I can't cause trouble trapped in here with you."
Jonathan grabbed two of the training swords from a rack on the wall. "No—well, yes—but it's mostly for my piece of mind. You need to learn to defend yourself at least a little," He held out one of the swords to Clary and she took it warily. She gave it a small, hesitant swing. "No offense for now, defense is more important for you. You just need to stay alive long enough for one of us to get to you."
"I don't want to have to be a burden if I don't have to," The two of them stepped on the mat and positioned themselves opposite each other. "I don't want to just defend myself until someone can come and rescue me."
"As admirable as that is—feet shoulders' width apart—offensive techniques take more time to learn. Defense is just a matter of holding the sword up the right way. Offense takes more thought than that and hell of a lot more strength than that." Clary followed Jonathan's instruction with an eye roll. "Less dominant foot forward that way when you step forward your shifting your dominant side forward."
"Isn't the best defense a good offense?" She asked instead of taking the half a step forward.
Jonathan tilted his head back and groaned. This. This is why Alec hated training with Izzy when they were younger. "Okay fine, show me what you got." If he couldn't convince her verbally he'd just have to show her.
"Really?" Her surprise only made him more sure his plan would work.
He smirked and readied himself. "Show me what you got, Red."
Clary made the most predictable strike imaginable, straight for the sword itself and not for Jonathan. He parried the attack easily, even with the soreness in his muscles. Clary let out a disgruntled sound and took a shot for his side. He blocked it again. She brought the sword straight down, aiming for his shoulder. He ducked out of the way and pushed back so fiercely she dropped her weapon.
"Now you don't have a weapon and Jace is free to decapitate you or shove a seraph blade through your heart, depends on how dramatic he's feeling that day, and save me," Jonathan bent down and grabbed her sword and held it out to her. "So defensive strategy then?"
Clary scowled and took the sword. "You cheated," She grumbled, "That last move seemed a little offensive to me."
Jonathan shrugged her complaints off, "Sometimes pushing the weapon away can cause your opponent to lose it."
"Well, I didn't want to hurt you. You're my brother," Clary explained, "If you were a demon I'd be trying harder."
"And I'm sure if you were training with Jace or Izzy you wouldn't go hard on them because they're your friends. Or if it was Alec it would because you don't want him to not like you," Jonathan continued with her logic, "You think I'd let you do anything out there that you're too scared to do in here? No way. We're all shadowhunters, we can take it. We've been beating the crap out of each other for years. Don't be afraid of hurting us."
Clary rolled her eyes, "Fine. How do I block?"
Jonathan was relieved that his strategy had worked. "Get into the stance from before," She followed his orders, "First, if someone brings the sword down vertically like you did there at the end, stepping aside isn't always necessary. Just hold your sword out horizontally. Here," He held onto her wrist as he moved her arm into the right angle.
"And don't hold on that tight, you'll lose feeling in your fingers in a couple minutes," Jonathan advised upon seeing Clary's white knuckles around the hilt of the sword. "Common mistake. Solid grip doesn't mean tight grip."
Clary nodded and readjusted her fingers. "This doesn't seem like it would be that effective. Wouldn't the tip of their sword still be able to graze me?"
Jonathan stepped back and got ready to demonstrate. "Not if you have the angle right," He did a slow motion version of the strike and stopped when he hit Clary's sword. His weapon stayed several inches away from her. "See? It depends on your attacker's height but you'll find your instinct is your most useful tool when you're estimating that kind of thing."
"What if I don't have that kind of instinct?" Clary let her arm drop a little. "What if my instinct tells me to keep it just a little lower than I should and I end up with stitches in my head?"
"Shadowhunters rarely use stitches, healing runes take care of cuts and scrapes pretty easily. It doesn't matter because you're a shadowhunter, you have those instincts." Jonathan reset his position, a silent signal for Clary to do the same.
"Now this I when you would get a little offensive, as you put it. If I was actually attacking you I wouldn't be going so slow. Speed and strength go together. The faster my sword is moving the harder you're going to have to push back to stop the strike." Clary nodded to show her understanding.
Jonathan laid his sword against Clary's like he had already finished the strike. "What's that supposed to do?" Clary looked at the swords than up at Jonathan. He had to stop himself from laughing. She looked a little bit like the youngest Lightwood, Max, during his training. Wide-eyed and confused when their trainer doesn't explain right away. Max as too little to even get into swords yet, he was still doing basic hand to hand combat training.
"I'm going to start pushing down, your job is to keep me from moving your guard down. That way you have an idea of the force you'll have to match. Okay?" Clary nodded and squared her shoulders.
Jonathan started push against Clary's block. She hesitated at first but began pushing back before he would have been able to cause real damage to her defense. "Like this?" She asked as he started pushing harder. Clary's arm didn't move an inch.
"Exactly," Jonathan smiled to himself. She was actually listening to him and taking his advice, "Now remember it's not going to be gradual like this. It's going to be abrupt. Again that's probably going to be an instinct thing to match their force. If you're not positive with how much force you need, always go with too much."
Clary glared up at him, "That sounds like offense."
"It sounds like covering your bases," Jonathan shot back. "Pull it off and you might be able to get them to lose a little ground. Want to try?"
"Bring it, Blondie," She mocked.
Jonathan stepped back into position. "If you're this cocky already I don't think I want you spending any more time with Jace," he muttered. He brought his sword down slower than he normally would but closer to what Clary might encounter in battle and she blocked it with ease. "Now this time push it away. I'm left handed so it's going to be easier for you since you're right handed, the angle is less awkward that way. Just push me to that side," He pointed to his left and her right, "That gets me even further away from you and—if you have the right training—opens up my chest and stomach for you to take a shot at. Ready?"
Clary nodded once. Jonathan preformed the same move a little faster than before. Clary deflected it perfectly, pushing his arm and sword to the side. What Jonathan hadn't expected was for Clary to drop her sword, grab his shoulder, pull him down, and knee him in the stomach hard enough that he dropped to his knees and struggled to get his breath back.
Jonathan grasped at his stomach and looked up at a smug Clary. "What the hell was that?" He gasped.
"Offense," She said simply. When Jonathan continued to stare up at her in shock she took pity on him and explained, "Mom and Luke made me take self-defense lessons, they said it was because I was a young woman in New York but I'm starting to think they had other motivations behind forcing me to take them. They were kind of fun though."
Clary shrugged and she held out her hand to help Jonathan stand up. He had to stay slightly hunched over due to the stabbing pain in his abdomen. "Way to prove me wrong, but never—and I mean never—drop your weapon like that," He warned, "There's no guarantee you'll get it back. As for this Luke guy, you mentioned him before right?"
"Yeah, I think I said something about him at the apartment. Why?"
"Do you think he might know something about Jocelyn? About any of this?"
Clary looked at the wall behind Jonathan's head and shook her head. "I don't know. I think—maybe," She paused and squeezed her eyes shut, "I think I remember something. Not something Magnus took from me, at least I don't think it is. Before I went to Pandemonium I heard Luke say something about going to see Magnus. It didn't seem that important, I figured he was some art gallery owner that wanted to display some of Mom's work. I ignored it."
Jonathan didn't take long to process the information. That sliver of information was enough to confirm there was someone else out there that might be able to get them information. "I think we're going to have to talk to Luke. Alec won't be thrilled but we don't have to tell him. He was a friend of Jocelyn's right? It's probably something you and I could do this afternoon."
"Wouldn't not telling Alec upset him?" Clary asked.
"Lots of things upset Alec, I don't have the time or the patience to not do all of them. Change into your mundane clothes. If Luke helped Jocelyn keep this from you he probably won't be thrilled with you showing up in gear. He definitely won't be thrilled to see me all runed up next to," Jonathan advised.
