A/N: Guess who rose from the dead!
Yea, it's me. WOOP-DE-FREAKING-DOO!
Also, WHAT. Chapter twenty?! I've never stuck this long with a story before - and the most amazing thing is, you guys keep sticking with it, too!
ALMOST 8K VIEWS ON HERE WHAT YOU GUYS I JUST WOW. Let me hug all of you.
Let's celebrate your awesomeness with a new chapter (which is long since overdue). Yay!
Dedicated to all of you because I love each and every single one of you little cuties. So much. :)
CHEERS! Xx
Magnus's POV
"You've got to be kidding me!"
"She's going to kill Alec if she keeps going like that," Clary says, cocking her head to side curiously, watching a furious Isabelle glare daggers at her older brother.
"He won't make it to the end of this game," Simon agrees, looking half-amused and half-worried, which is a kind of amazing combination. "And it's only the first round."
"Too bad," Jace smirks, shrugging out of his leather jacket and proceeding in using it as a shield between him and the tree he's currently leaning on.
"Will all of you shut up? I'm trying to read, and Charles Dickens gives me a headache without you guys being annoying," I sigh, turning the page and frowning when I realize I have no idea what's happening in this book. At all.
"Your boyfriend is getting killed by his sister during badminton, don't you think that beats Oliver Twist?" Simon says, turning his head to squint at me. With another annoyed sigh, I close the book and chuck it at his face.
"I will beatyou if you keep looking at me like that," I threaten, grinning as I watch him pry the - admittedly not very thin - book off his face with a groan.
"It's kind of hard not to look," Clary points out, "And don't hit my best friend. He needs his brain cells."
"Hey!" Simon protests, managing to sit up and glare in our general direction. There's a red spot on his face where the edge of the book hit him, but other than that, he looks fine.
"I'm simply too fabulous for all of you to handle," I retort dramatically, turning my attention to my poor boyfriend, currently losing to his sister.
"Magnus, seeing you wear pink skinny pants, a glittery shirt and girls' boots is something I could've lived without," Jace says, making me glare at him.
"Girls' boots?! Bitch please, those are Doc Martens. And just because they have a floral pattern, doesn't mean I can't kick you in the nuts so hard you won't ever be able to reproduce," I say, pointing a stern finger at him. He just looks at the pink nail polish I'm wearing and raises his eyebrow.
"Yeah, sure," he replies, shrugging and pulling Clary basically into his lap.
"I bet Magnus could kick the shit out of you, even if he wore Louboutins," she says, dropping me a wink.
"Especially with Louboutins," I agree, nodding wildly. "Andthis is why Clary's my favorite."
"I only hear yada, yada, yada," Simon interrupts, shaking his head at us. "Magnus, stop getting glitter all over me and support your boyfriend. He's losing, and I don't mean the game."
"What else could he be losing?" I frown, watching as Isabelle hits the ball so hard it basically torpedoes right through Alec's racket.
"His dignity," Jace grins as my poor boyfriend misses the next ball flying his way, causing Izzy to erupt into a fit of celebratory howls.
"I won!" she cheers, bounding over to us and basically throwing herself at Simon.
"We all saw," he says, putting his arms around her with a grin. "You killed it."
"Of course I did, I'm Isabelle Lightwood," she snorts, flicking him in the forehead.
"Ow! What is it with you people and hurting me?!" he whines, rubbing his head and trying to glare at her at the same time.
"Hey, loser," Jace greets his parabatai, who throws him a death glare and picks up a water bottle from Clary's backpack.
"Just because you had an easy opponent," he replies, uncapping the bottle and taking huge gulps of water.
"Hey!" I protest, even though it's kind of true. I do suck at badminton, and Jace had an easy time winning against me, but that doesn't mean you point it out. "Worst. Boyfriend.Ever."
"Stop bickering, it's Simon versus Magnus next," Isabelle commands, jumping to her feet and pulling a slightly dizzy-looking Simon with her. "We need to get to the final sometime, folks."
It was Clary's idea to go and spend the surprisingly sunny day at the park to take a break from it all. It's been a few days since someone broke into our apartment, and we're about as close to figure out who as we are to the Northpole. None of us minded a good day to relax and stop worrying, though, which is how we ended up here. And it was relaxing, until Isabelle decided to have a badminton tournament. Which is why I currently regret befriending any of these morons.
"Come on, Magnus, your turn," Izzy says, nudging me with her shoe. I look up at her silhouette, outlined by the sun, and pout.
"But that would require getting up," I whine, but she just raises an eyebrow at me.
"Do I need to tell Alec the story of how Simon and I-" she starts, but is interrupted by my boyfriend, choking on his water and shoving me forward roughly.
"Go!" he cries, coughing and looking slightly panicked. I wonder if his head is going to explode with that shade of red it's just turned, but get up regardless.
"Fine, I'll go," I sigh, and then we play.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
An amazingly short amount of time later, I'm sitting underneath the tree again, leaning against Alec slightly and watching Isabelle win against Clary. Surprisingly enough, Simon has turned out to be quite talented at badminton, winning against me easily.
I may be possibly the worst player of our group (or all of New York) - not that I'd ever admit that, but still. Jace is, unsurprisingly, really good at the stupid game, while Clary is an overall ok player. Isabelle isn't the best with technique and stuff like that, but she's so determined to win she makes up for her lack of sensitivity and concentration with fierceness and energy. Alec is trying his hardest, but most of the time, he's a bit too slow, or hits the ball at a wrong angle, both things that'll cause him to lose points in a way that could've been easily prevented. So he gets more worked up with each passing minute, his games often concluding in a furious Alec almost breaking his racket or exploding in a fit of rage.
It's funny to watch, though. He's cute when he gets all worked up.
"And again, Isabelle wins," Simon announces, writing something down on the notepad that Clary usually draws on. Seeing as this is "a serious competition," Isabelle forced him to take notes on the games.
"Surprise, surprise," Alec mumbles, pushing me off of himself gently and standing up to play against Jace. Clary plops down next to me, her face slightly red, her breathing ragged, and pushes her hair out of her face.
"You seem like you take your loss well," I observe, handing her something to drink.
She shrugs and grins at me. "It's just a game, you know."
"Isabelle doesn't seem to think that way," I point out, biting my tongue to keep from laughing at Isabelle, who's busy watching her brother and his parabatai battle each other, a deadly serious look on her face.
"Isabelle is crazy," Clary laughs, leaning back and narrowing her eyes at Jace. "Alec's getting better."
I know she doesn't mean that he's getting better at badminton, but in general; she means his panic attacks, that started up with the message on the mirror, his anxiety and nervous behavior are becoming less these days, that he seems like he'sfeeling better.
"I know," I say, although he's still not fine, and I know he doesn't sleep as much as he should, and he's overthinking everything. I can hear him pace around the living room in the middle of the night often enough.
"I think you're good for him," she adds, glancing at me. "That he-"
"CHEATER! YOU FUCKING CHEATER!" Alec's indignant cry interrupts us, causing my attention to snap away from the redheaded girl next to me and back to the game. My boyfriend has just lowered his racket, pointing at something on Jace's hand, seemingly fuming.
"He's wearing a stamina rune! That's against the rules!" he explodes, storming over at Jace and grabbing his parabatai's hand roughly, showing the rune to Isabelle.
"I don't remember even making any rules," Jace says calmly, looking as if all of this is of very little interest to him - which it most likely is.
"Um," Isabelle says, furrowing her brows and examining the rune. "Simon, is this against the rules?"
"I don't know," Simon shrugs, looking up from his notepad and over at me. "Magnus?"
"Only my boyfriend gets to wear a stamina rune," I state, "And not for badminton, either."
"Ew," Isabelle says, throwing me an annoyed look. "I didn't need to know that. Anyhow, stamina runes count as cheating. Jace, you're out. Which means Alec has won."
"Fun killer," Jace says, making his way over to us and purposely ignoring the smug look Alec throws his way. "Your boyfriend is so bad, he can only win if someone else gets disqualified."
"Is that supposed be an insult?" I ask, examining my fingernails, feeling bored. "Because if it is, you need to work on that."
"Simon, you play against Alec, then," Isabelle says, "This is for the semi-final."
"Someone stop her," Simon groans, getting up and throwing the notepad at Clary. "Here, you deal with that."
Unsurprisingly, Simon wins with an almost ridiculous difference against Alec - which means that Alec is out, and I have to deal with a grumpy boyfriend. Thankfully, Isabelle orders me away to play against Clary (I don't really understand her system, if there even is one), so for now, Jace is stuck with Alec, who's in one of the worst moods I've ever seen him in. Which has to mean something, considering he's almost always in a bad mood.
"Magnus," Isabelle demands, "That's it. You're out."
"What? Why? I didn't even lose yet!" I protest, lowering my racket and pouting at her.
"No, but setting the freaking ball on fire is as much cheating as a stamina rune is, so you're out," she explains, twirling her braid between her fingers.
"Fine. Do I at least win?" I say, handing her the racket and trying not to laugh as Clary pulls a face behind Izzy's back, before smiling at me.
"Yeah, whatever," Isabelle replies, taking the racket from me and raising her eyebrow. "Didn't you forget something?"
"Oh, right," I say, waving my left hand dismissively, causing a brand new ball to appear in the palm of her hand. "There you go, Boris Becker."
"That's a tennis player, you moron," she replies, clearly irritated. I grin and sit down with Clary and Alec, who's still sulking over his lost game.
"Thanks," Clary says, pulling out an apple and starting to cut it into pieces calmly, "You saved me from more humiliation."
I cock my eyebrow at her, and she shrugs. "I hate badminton," she adds, handing me a piece of apple and offering one to Alec, who proceeds in glaring into the distance.
"Amen, sister," I say, and then we fall silent, watching Isabelle play against Jace. It's an intense game, since both of them are good players in very different ways. The score is extremely close the entire time, but in the end, it's Jace who wins.
"NO!" Isabelle shouts, staring at him like he just murdered her puppy, "NO! You can't be freaking serious! I can't lose, I just-just - you can't - I - GAAAH!"
"Ah, the cries of the desperate and broken," Jace smirks, whirling the racket and bowing slightly. "I believe it's you against me now, Simon dear."
"Oh joy," Simon mutters, visibly paling. Clary snickers and throws a piece of apple at him, which makes him glare at her, before he stands up and walks over, slowly, as if hoping that if he only walks slow enough, he won't have to play.
"I - hate - this," Isabelle groans, stomping with each word, kicking an empty can of soda out of her way. "Stupid game."
Clary hides her smile quickly, and I wink at her as Isabelle starts ranting on about how Jace must've cheated yet again. I reach out, resting my hand on top of Alec's, making him jump and look at me.
"You've been awfully quiet today," I saw, my voice low so only he can hear me. "I'm getting concerned. It's just a game, Alec."
"I don't care about the game, Magnus," he replies, frowning at me. "There's more important things to care about."
"Not to your sister," I attempt to joke, but furrow my brows when he doesn't even smile. He's staring off into the distance, seemingly zoning out, and the fact that he won't talk to me keeps bugging me. I bite my lip, debating whether I should try to make him open up and quickly deciding against it, instead just twining my fingers with his.
He starts running his thumb over the back of my hand, absentmindedly, lightly, but it's the first sign of normalcy, so it calms my mind a little.
"Winner, Winner!" Simon cries suddenly, making me tear my eyes away from Alec and look over at him. He's currently jumping up and down, waving his racket in Jace's disbelieving face, looking like a proud moron.
"B-But-" Jace stammers, staring at Simon like he just gave birth to a three-headed, glittering peacock, and then goes silent. He seems unable to process the fact that he lost, and, overall, to someone like Simon, too.
"I think he's going into shock," Clary laughs, standing up and hugging Simon, Jace looking like his entire life just fell apart.
"God, he's such a diva," I say, loud enough for him to hear.
"That's a bit ironic, coming from someone like you, don't you think?" Simon snorts, skipping over with a triumphant grin plastered all over his face.
Before I can ask what he means, I feel Alec tense up.
"Alec?" I ask in confusion, turning to look at him. He isn't looking back at me, though; his eyes are fixed on something at the other end of the park. Or, more accurately, onsomeone.
I follow his gaze and see a group of guys, all looking kind of terrifying and horribly dressed, walking around, drinking, laughing. I scrunch up my nose in disgust, both at their truly terrible outfits and the fact that they're getting drunk already, despite it not being even five in the evening yet.
And then one of them looks up and over, something that resembles a smirk coming to his fully pierced face. He says something to his friends, gesturing in our direction, until all of them turn towards us with that same, weird smile.
Before I comprehend what's happening, Alec's jumped and is running straight at them, a terrifying roar tearing from his throat.
"Alec!" Isabelle cries at the same time that I do, but he doesn't react, doesn't stop, doesn't look back. He just keeps charging at them, despite being totally outnumbered on his own and unarmed, too.
I feel my heart crawl to a stop when the tallest of the guys shouts something unintelligible and the six of them turn around, starting to run away, Alec following them.
I scramble to my feet, cry out his name, again and again, but he doesn't even glance at me. He just keeps running, and then he's out of sight, and so are the guys, andI've never been this terrified in my entire life before.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A/N: Oops. Cliffhanger. ;)
Anyhow, I wanted to keep this chapter somewhat light and happy for the most part. The bad stuff comes next, but this is a celebratory chap, so yea.
What do you guys think is going to happen next?
Love y'all! :)