3. Relaxation
When Clary awoke the next morning, her jeans gripping her hips almost painfully, Isabelle was still sound asleep and snoring lightly, her cheek pressed firmly to the pillow beside Clary's head. Her legs and arms were strewn haphazardly over Clary at strange angles, though looking at the dark-haired girl she appeared to be the perfect picture of complete comfort. It didn't seem to matter what Isabelle did she just always exuded an aura of beauty that stunned Clary and overwhelmed her with a myriad of emotions she couldn't begin to count off and so the possibility of moving and accidentally disrupting the sleeping beauty posed as an immediate threat to the red-haired girl. She allowed her fingers to trail idly across the naked skin of Isabelle's back, marvelling at the silky texture that passed over her fingertips for a moment.
Beside her, Isabelle began to stir, her long lashes fluttering open to reveal sleep-filled brown eyes. She yawned loudly, making a point to stretch her arms out and arch her back as she did so, her body trembling for a moment. "G'morning Clary," Isabelle murmured, sliding out of bed easily and grabbing an outfit from the stash of clothes she had started building up in Clary's room. Clary pouted at the girl as she stalked over to the bathroom, satisfied when the dark-haired girl turned to stick her tongue out and wink before heading through the open door.
Clary considered staying in bed an basking in the warmth for a while longer but hearing the shower begin to rain down on the porcelain of the bath, the pitches changing as Isabelle climbed under the spray she realised she couldn't. With no small amount of confidence, Clary removed her clothing and set out to join Isabelle in the shower. It couldn't hurt, right?
Sometime later the two reappeared, both feeling refreshed and clean. They loitered in the bedroom for a moment to dry their hair and remake the bed before setting out for the kitchen. Luke, Jace and Alec already sat around the table when they entered the room, each of them greedily grabbing eggs, bacon, sausages and hash browns from a large plate in the centre of the table. The girls exchanged a glance, in part wondering who made the food but mostly marvelling over the unlikely happy coincidence of stumbling across a cooked meal. With an exaggerated shrug, Clary took one of the remaining seats at the table, opting to seat herself next to Jace in favour of Alec. She knew she made the right choice seeing Isabelle's face light up as she fell into easy conversation with her brother.
"Mornin' sis." Jace greeted around a mouthful of food, though Clary could see the affection in his wording.
"Good morning, I had absolutely no idea you were practising for the world human hoover competition in Vancouver this year, I think you'll do great though." Clary joked, eyeing his massive pile of food with a sickly glace. The idea of eating so much as half of the mountain in front of her blonde-haired companion made Clary's stomach clench, she would wonder where it all went but with all of the intensive training and dangerous missions Jace must be burning it off somewhere.
"Yeah but Luke is gonna be tough competition." Jace retorted, downing half of the rich smelling black coffee beside his plate before digging in again. Her eyes slid across the table and almost exploded at the sight of Luke's plate, which was stacked like an intricate food Jenga blob that threatened to crawl off of the side of the plate.
"That right there is an art, being able to fit all that on one plate," Clary noted, using the silver metal tongs that lay discarded next to the half-empty coffee pot to shovel a more modest amount of food onto her own plate, making sure to grab a little bit of everything.
"Yes, but if that blob could speak it would be screaming 'Dear God, help me'," Alec added with a chortle, some of Magnus's daily humour shining through in his friendly joke.
"You said it, kiddo," Luke responded with a deep, rumbling belly laugh that contagiously infected the rest of the gathered Nephilim, devolving the group into a fit of giggles for a good few minutes.
"I swear Alec, Magnus is a really good influence on you. You're even cracking jokes now." Jace japed with a grin, his golden eyes gleaming mischievously. Seconds later the table began to rumble, the two boys playfully kicking one another beneath the table.
"Ouch Alec! Be careful you made me smack my knee off the table." Jace groaned. The thud had lifted the table centimetres from the ground, jostling Clary's arm and freeing the egg and bacon from the fork she grasped.
"Dammit guys I'm trying to eat," Clary chided, attempting futilely to sound irritated at the boys and keep her face straight. At this, Alec and Jace began making stupid faces, pulling on their eyelids, the corners of their mouths and their ears while sticking their tongues out and rolling their eyes. It didn't take long for Clary to burst into laughter once more. She saw the momentary look of appraisal on Isabelle's face before the girl cut in, swiftly kicking Jace in the shin and giving Alec the briefest 'no more nonsense or death ensues' look before returning to her own food, a small smile plastered on her face. "See, I have a badass girlfriend to kick your ass, you better listen to me from now on." Clary joked, jabbing her elbow into Jace's side gently before returning to her food.
"Yeah, I guess you have me there Clary." Jace conceded before immediately turning to Isabelle. "So you have an unearthly glow, could that have any correlation to the loud noises I heard filtering through the walls last night?"
Several things happened at once as a result of Jace's comment, both Alec and Luke choked on the food they were in the process of swallowing, Jace burst into a fit of giggles and rather uncharacteristically Isabelle turned the colour one might expect a perfectly ripe cherry to have. Clary gaped at Jace, who promptly fell from his chair onto the floor and Alec struggled to regain his composure.
"By the Angel Jace, I did not need to know that!" Luke barked, his face a mixture of complete shock and embarrassment. Internally Clary could feel herself shrink away slightly in embarrassment, her love life wasn't exactly something she wanted Luke to be privy to hearing about though she couldn't help but smile at the varied reactions.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry I won't bring it up again. Hey don't glare at me like that Iz, it's your own fault for being so dang loud." He chuckled again before raising his hands in defeat, wisely bowing out under the intense death glare the blushing brunette shot at him.
"Just you wait, Jace Lightwood, next time you're trying to get it with someone around me I'll be there, I will get my revenge maybe not now but someday." Isabelle's face was deadly serious, though something in her eyes belied a small amount of amusement over the direction the conversation was taking. Clary took the opportunity to finish her breakfast while the two had a short glaring contest with Luke observing, his eyebrows poised in a curious manner. It went on for several minutes, long enough for Clary to finish eating and pour herself a coffee neither of them appeared to have blinked the entire time and Clary was starting to feel concerned.
"So anyway now everyone is finished, I don't think Clary should be coming to Alicante with us. With her powers, being Valentine's daughter and being in a gay relationship with Izzy? No offence guys but I know neither of you would be able to hide it and only a small percentage of Nephilim support gay love/ marriage. Anyway, my point is I have a bad feeling about this and I don't think it's a good idea." He lay his hands down on the table, palms pressed firmly against the wood. He didn't look angry in any way, mostly concerned with a hint of shimmering fear trying to hide in the depths of his golden eyes.
"I understand your concerns, Jace but the truth is we don't have a choice. In light of recent events, Imogen will no longer be in the role of Inquisitor. That position is now being filled by a man named Aldertree whom I don't know too much about. He has convinced the council to call us all in for a more detailed recount of what happened and also to meet you, though that statement in itself leaves them a lot of leeway." Luke retorted eyes level with Jace's as he spoke. He was lounging backwards in his chair in an attempt to look relaxed though his stiffened posture gave away just how tense he really felt about the subject. It forced Clary to reconsider how enthusiastic she had been at first, as much as she had a right to see the world she came from her family had equal right to try and protect her from the possible dangers.
"You're right, it does sound like it might be unpleasant if something goes wrong but trust me when I say I can handle it. One way or another the Clave will want to see me at some point we would be as well to get it over and done with now." Clary eyed Isabelle for a moment, her eyes drinking in the exposed collarbones and smooth skin. She knew from seeing how scared Alec had been before coming out that there was a base to the rumours surrounding the homophobia in their world, she had heard the stories of shadowhunters beaten by their own kind some of which even went missing. She refused to broach the subject because it was all too real a threat even in the mundane world and to think of it taken to these extremes by 'angelic beings' was enough to overload her brain.
"Clary will have at least one of us with her at all times though, we can keep her safe," Isabelle said passionately, her sparkling brown eyes seemed to gaze at Clary's soul. She felt her heart skip a beat, gentle heat spreading across her cheeks as she shyly returned Isabelle's gaze.
"Yeah, it shouldn't take too long anyway we'll be back at the institute before we know it. You guys mind if I take off? Magnus wants to take me on 'the longest date of my life' to make up for how busy I'll be in Alicante." Alec's blue eyes sparkled as he spoke about his lover, a small happy smile playing about his lips.
"Of course, go get him, tiger," Isabelle smirked, leaning over to give her brother a tight hug before letting him bounce from the room with more energy than Clary had seen him within a while.
"A date sounds like a great idea, think I'll pick up three or four myself depending on how much time I have." Jace grinned. He stopped to grab Alec's plate and cup which the dark-haired boy had clearly forgotten about in his excitement and placed them atop his own in a sorted, neat stack before moving them into the dishwasher. "Dishwasher's almost full so last one to touch it starts it, I'm putting the tablet in before I go."
"Thanks, Jace, I'll probably get it I've been really hungry today and I'm thinking about eating some steak," Luke announced nonchalantly, he had opened up the daily newspaper missing the look of horror that passed over Clary's face at the thought.
"So you mean the whole cow then yeah? I don't think we have the facilities to cook that. Anyway, catch you later." Jace left the room with a grin, which mirrored Luke's almost perfectly.
"So what are you guys doing today then? It'll probably be tomorrow evening after nightfall that we'll be leaving so I'd say that's a fair amount of time to relax beforehand."
"Knowing Clary we'll probably pay Simon a visit but I need to lounge around for a bit first," Isabelle replied easily, raising her arms up to stretch before taking their used dishes over to the dishwasher and stowing them away.
"Okay well, keep your phones on you incase of any emergencies but otherwise have fun." Luke smiled, peering at them for a moment over the flopping corner of his newspaper. He readjusted the paper in his hands a moment later, the pages rustling against one another as he returned to the column he was reading.
"I guess we'll be watching a movie then!" Clary exclaimed gleefully, another opportunity to expose Isabelle to awesome movies causing excitement to bubble up inside her. If there was one thing she loved, it was spending time with Isabelle.