An update! About a week earlier than I planned, but I'm going away this weekend and then quite busy next week, so I thought I would update now! Also, part of the reason I'm busy next week is because it's my birthday! So here's an early birthday present from me to you xx

"I want everything on the menu," Maia Roberts moaned pitifully as she looked down at the glossy paper menu and Clary let out a laugh. "Seriously, how have we never come here before? This place looks amazing and it smells even better." Everything coming off Maia was pulsing happy and bright, and even though Clary was careful when keeping her abilities to herself, stopping herself from dipping into other peoples minds as much as she could, Maia's happiness was radiating and it was impossible not to see it.

"This breakfast isn't just about the food, right?" Clary tipped her head to the side. Maia grinned, pinching her lower lip between her teeth and looking sideways across at her fiancee, who was smiling broadly—which was saying a lot. Jordan Kyle was rarely the type of guy who went around smiling. Maia was projecting her happy thoughts so loudly that Clary was having a hard time not to see the images dancing through her friends mind.

"I'm pregnant!" Maia gasped, wiggling around in her seat, her eyes glowing and the curls of her hair bouncing against her cheeks.

"Oh my god!" Clary squealed, launching herself across the table to wrap her arms around her friend.

"Congratulations," Simon Lewis grinned, reaching out his hand across the table toward Jordan, who shook his hand enthusiastically.

"Holy shit—do you know the gender? How far along are you? Oh my god—have you told your parents?" Clary was rattling off questions faster than Maia could answer them, and Simon and Jordan laughed as the two woman began speaking over each other. At one point it looked as though the waiter wanted to come over and take their orders, but when he saw how fast the two were talking—with absolutely no sign of letting up—he quickly did a one-eighty and went to take another tables order instead. It was almost half an hour later before the waiter came back, and by then, Clary and Maia had calmed down enough to give their orders.

Maia and Jordan were both human, like a lot of the other inhabitants of the Sugar Bowl. Just from the things that Clary caught in trails of thoughts from several people, she could tell that they were mutants, but only one had a visible ability. A lot of mutants were just like herself, or Simon, with their mutations easily concealed. Simon's mutation was enhanced intelligence, so he was sort of just a complete and utter genius, or as Clary liked to call him, 'nerd'. Everything he put his mind to—and even pretty much everything he didn't—he learnt in an instant, able to understand and decipher astrophysics and nuclear engineering as easy as reading a childs book. It meant he had a lot of difficulty with he was at school, he couldn't relate to other kids his age or why they were taking so long to pick up on things when he was far more advanced. It got better when he ended up at a specialized school, which was where he met Clary, where she was trying to learn how to control her powers.

"We need to come back here a hundred more times," Maia announced as she polished off her pancakes, looking around to make sure no one was watching her as she ran her finger around the outside of her plate, licking the last of the maple syrup off. "I think we both enjoyed that a lot," Maia grinned as she rested a hand over her stomach, which was still completely flat. Clary's eyes lit up and she looked as though she was about to start gushing again when her phone vibrated from where it was laying on the table. She picked it up, as Jordan and Simon starting discussing comic books—something that she generally zoned out of.

He needs to see you.

It was Alec. And just like Jace, he was always so vague in his text messages.

Clary rolled her eyes as her thumb hovered over the screen, glancing around at her table of friends before tapping out a response.

For my power or my body?

She was teasing him a little bit, she could admit that to herself, because it was just too funny, playing around with Alec, who was always so uptight and tight lipped. She knew that he had his reasons, after a year of being with Jace, Alec was a staple figure in his organisation, and she had learned things from his boyfriend, Magnus Bane, and his sister, Isabelle Lightwood, and also occasionally from Alec about his childhood, which had been abusive. Alec had borne the brunt of the abuse of their parents, sheltering his younger siblings, and he still carried that with him now.

"Ooh, is this the mystery guy texting you?" Maia nudged Clary in the side with a hopeful smile. Her friends all knew that she was seeing someone, they just had absolutely no idea who it was—even Simon, and Simon was her best friend. Given Jace's profession, and the danger that tended to follow him, she wanted to keep her two lives separate for as long as possible. "Seriously, you guys have been seeing each other for ages now."

"It's not that serious," Clary answered vaguely, although her friends didn't need to be telepaths to know that she was lying.

"Not serious my ass," Simon grumbled under his breath, his eyes narrowed as he looked across the table at the red head. Jace was a serious point of contention between them, given there were practically no secrets between them. Simon had been verbally open with her about how he wanted to meet this guy, and how there must be something wrong with him if she didn't want to discuss him. And he didn't even try to quiet his thoughts when the mystery lover came up as well, Clary picking up on his upset.

"You guys will get to meet him, don't worry," Clary replied. "Eventually."

And when is that exactly? Simon pushed his thoughts toward Clary, his voice exactly the right volume, unlike when Tessa spoke to her through her head, since they had had years of communicating that like. Clary ignored Simon, pointedly not looking at him, even though he knew that she could clearly hear his question.

"Well, good for you for going out there and meeting someone and being happy," Maia said, reaching over and squeezing Clary's hand. Clary had a difficult time letting people in since when she was with someone so frequently, she become more intune with their thoughts. She couldn't help it, as she began to trust someone and get close to them, the walls that she kept up around her mutation came down a little bit. She still didn't try to intrude, but she couldn't help it. And during sex...During sex, everything started to let go, and she had realized one of her boyfriends was cheating on her while they were in bed together, and that another lover had thought that her mutation was intrusive and scared him while she was on her hands and knees in front of him. Even with friendships it could be hard, which is why her inner circle was small.

You think I would be texting you for a booty call?

Clary could just imagine the disgusting curl of Alec's lip as she read the latest text from him, and she couldn't help but smile at her phone. He didn't even bother waiting for her reply before sending off the next reply.

I'll come get you. Where are you?

Clary considered telling him that she would meet up with them later. It had been a while since she had caught up with Maia and Jordan, and they had just broken some big news. But it had been three hours already, and they would all probably start going home soon anyway, so she sent off a quick message to Alec with her location.

The Sugar Bowl cafe.

Two seconds later, Alec was walking through the front door, his eyes sweeping the room before spotting her, and coming directly over to the table. After discovering what Alec's mutation was, that he could teleport anywhere that he had been before, it was no surprise that he could show up with a click of his fingers, but she found it pretty adorable that he knew exactly where the Sugar Bowl cafe was, since he could only teleport to places that he had been before, or that he could see.

Undoubtedly it would have been Magnus' idea to drag him here at some point.

"Let's go," Alec wasted no times with formalities.

"Wait," Simon raised an eyebrow as he swiveled in his chair to look up at Alec. "Is this him?" The surprise on his face was evident. "Is this your boyfriend?"

"What?" Alec screwed up his nose and gave a sharp shake of his head. "No." It probably sounded like an insult to people who didn't know Alec, but the man was just blunt, and straight to the point. Clary let out a short laugh, but she couldn't help but be surprised that Alec had actually come straight over to her, making himself obvious to the patrons of the cafe, since he usually kept anonymous. In fact, none of her friends had seen anyone related to Jace's business, because she had tried so carefully to keep them separate, and Jace respected that.

The fact that he was just walking in here, it made her just a little bit worried.

"You ready?" Alec asked with a jerk of his head in the direction of the door. Despite how common mutations were, they weren't always something that got shown off in public. Especially with mutations as powerful as Alec or Clary's, it wasn't something that they put on display.

"Yeah, okay," Clary nodded. She turned back to Maia, letting out another squeal as she leaned across the table and gave the girl one last tight hug. "I'm so happy for you! You guys are going to be the absolute best parents!" Maia laughed, hugging Clary back. "And I'll see you at classes on Monday," she raised an eyebrow at Simon.

And then you'll tell me about your mystery man and whoever the fuck this is? Simon asked, his voice humming in her head.

We'll see, she responded and Simon huffed slightly under his breath.

"Bye, Jordan," Clary wiggled her fingers over her shoulder as she followed Alec out of the cafe. "Pretty cute that you've been here before." Alec didn't even bother to reply, just shot her a half-assed glare as they went around the side of the cafe, where they weren't in full view of the public. Alec might be all tough exterior, but the way that he put his hands on Clary's shoulders as he made sure she was ready to teleport, was gentle and careful. The first couple of times that they had done this—just like the first couple of times that anyway teleported—Clary had felt nauseous and light-headed. Alec always waited until she gave him the go-ahead before he transported them anywhere. "Let's go," Clary nodded.

"Right," Alec jerked his head in a nod, and then Clary felt her body jerk slightly, and they were zipped away into thin air.

Songwise; I've become completely addicted to Julia Michaels and Camila Cabello. Recent favourites of Julia Michaels are Uh-Huh and Worst In Me, and for Camila Cabello, All These Years, Consequences and Somethings Gotta Give. Especially All These Years! Also there's Homeostasis by Nostalghia, which is an older one. Ooh, and White Flag by Bishop Briggs, which is absolutely amazing, and was sent through by Jling.

I'm also still coming down from my Halsey concert high ;) So anything by her is recommended!

So a couple of movies that I've seen over the past month are Ready Player One, Love, Simon, Pacific Rim: Uprising, Red Sparrow and Avengers: Infinity War. Pacific Rim was the typical monster versus robot shit, but no one said it was going to be a masterpiece! Haha. It was good for what it was, a depressing lack of Charlie Hunnam though. Ready Player One was a lot better than I though it would be, although my hubby and his friends enjoyed it a lot more than I did, given they got a lot more of the references. Love, Simon was beautiful and I recommend to all. Red Sparrow was okay, a bit long, and because I'm not the biggest fan of Jennifer Lawrence, that was already a bit of a turn off for me.

Now.

Avengers: Infinity War.

Holy shit.

Amazing.

Bucky saying 'Steve'? Okoye's side eye! M'Bakku being strong and beautiful! Steve's introduction to Groot? LOKI?! Spidey and Iron Man's last scene? Shuri's little moment? Wanda and Vision! Steve's BEARD?! Daddy AF. Pretty much everything Drax related. Thor's entry into earth?! Bucky and Rocket's interaction?! Probably a hundred thousand more things that I just don't have time to mention! I've already fangirled hard with Allieanna, we're both pretty heartbroken. If you want to fangirl with me, send me a message, I am completely down for that.

Let me know what songs you're listening to, if you've seen any of these movies, what you liked about the chapter or what you didn't like and what you think is going to happen next—leave a review, they keep me going :) Let me know if you want a preview as well xx