Perhaps an hour later they arrived at Taki's. They had emerged from the yellow cars to a small cafe, sat a little below street level crawling with downworlders, Tessa knew. She had been subjected to sit in a car with Jace and Will, it was extremely awkward and the two of them seemed to have nothing to say, despite the fact that they were related and had never met before. You'd have thought there was lots of family gossip to catch up on, Tessa thought making her way towards the door of the cafe. Clary and Jace walked ahead of them, Jace holding the door open for them politely. She smiled at him to show her gratitude.
"My God, it's not an opium den is it?" Will said, brushing his tangled hair from his eyes, watching a couple of outlandish werewolves exit the building.
"Not quite. But if you want I'm sure Magnus could find one for you, quite the expert from what Alec tells me." Isabelle replied as Jem turned to scowl at his parabatai. Will shrugged.
"It's just a cafe. No drugs, unless you count the faire drinks." Clary said, her lips curling up into a smile, as if she was remembering something. She turned to look at Jace who was trying not to smile. She burst out into a fit of laughter, startling Tessa.
Tessa walked into the cafe after Clary, taken aback by the multitude of downworlders that congregated around different wooden tables, all dressed in strange clothes. Tessa could not help but stare as a vampire walked past, dressed in a skin tight leather dress that barely grazed her knees. She averted her eyes immediately, unlike Will who was quite happy to stare directly at them.
"Over here, Clary!" She heard a boy's voice call out from the corner. She followed Clary to a table in the corner of them room, almost hidden in the dark alcove. Jem was at her side, his hand on her back protectively. Clary stood at the edge of the table, Jace scooted into the booth beside another shadowhunter by the looks of it. He had a head of dark hair and shocking blue eyes, very much like Will, in fact she wondered if he was another Herondale.
Adjacent to him Tessa noticed, was another boy, he was tall and gangly, with brown waves that reached his forehead, and eyes so dark they were almost black. Vampire, she thought immediately, but despite this he looked friendly enough. Tessa remembered the vampires she had had a run in with almost a year ago now and shivered pushing the thought away. He had an unusual T-shirt that read, "Clearly I have made some bad decisions" scrawled across the front in an unusual font. She decided to see what he was like before she befriended him, one could never be too careful with vampires.
"William Herondale." A voice said almost a shout; it was Magnus who had now slid out of his seat. Tessa stared, her mouth open in shock. He had his hair in spikes, covered in glitter, his eyes rimmed with the same dark make-up as Isabelle. He wore leather trousers and a shirt the colours of a rainbow on a summer's day, the collar open showing an expanse of necklaces. She closed her mouth, suddenly aware of what she must have looked like to these people. She shuffled self consciously. Jem squeezed her hand reassuringly.
"Magnus, you're looking-" Will paused, obviously shocked and looking for the right word.
"Shiny." Jem said finishing his sentence for him, the two of them had gotten into that habit, Tessa noticed. Will nodded in agreement, his blue eyes wide at the sight of a very sparkly Magnus. He seemed to reflect the little light that poured into the room, when he moved different flecks of light would dance around his head. Tessa found it strangely beautiful.
Tessa suspected the lack of light was because of the vampires, but she was dumbfounded as to how they would get here in the sunlight in the first place. She noticed the boy opposite her was sat in a strip of sunlight. She refrained from asking questions so soon.
"Yes well, times have changes James Carstairs." His voice tightened when he spoke Jem's name. He shook his hand in an informal manner and then did something that shocked Tessa; he pulled Will into a tight embrace. He held him there, she felt she should interrupt the silence between the rest of the group was getting rather uncomfortable. Will pulled away, noticing their stares.
"Nice to see you too Magnus." Will patted him on the arm, they had only seen Magnus last week but for Magnus himself it had been decades. She wondered about when the last time Magnus saw herself was, perhaps it was just last week. She shifted uncomfortably, smoothing down her skirts.
"Tessa." He spoke her name as a whisper, kissing her hand in a gentlemanly way, as he always did.
Clary edged into the seat next to Jace, leaving Magnus to get reacquainted, she bumped Simon's shoulder, his icy skin making her shiver slightly.
"Looks like you've had an eventful morning, Fray, have you been busy in the weapons room again?" He said wiggling his eyebrows.
Shut up Simon!" She hissed, feeling her face flush, "Well it's not every day a group of shadowhunters from Victorian England turn up at your boyfriends house is it?" She said, sarcastically a smile on her face.
"It's not every day you meet a group of shadowhunters. " He said, it was true, she had never really associated herself with any other shadowhunters, she had met them and had mutual friends but other than that Simon's statement was true. There was some nephilim, however, she would rather forget. She grimaced picking up the menu from the centre if the table.
"I suppose not." She grumbled, as she decided whether to have the coconut pancakes or not.
Magnus had shuffled back into his seat beside Alec, who sat staring at Will with an icy stare. His blue eyes bearing into Will's, who turned away uncomfortably and pulled out a chair or Tessa. Clary admired how gentlemanly he was with her, how he always pulled out her chair for her offered her help. Clary wondered if they lived all that time ago if Jace do that for herself.
"Sit down, Jem, Will." Clary said, shuffling Simon along, who was pushed into close proximity with a very angry looking Alec.
"Magnus, I know you probably want to get reacquainted but-" Jem started but was cut off by Alec.
"You haven't introduced us." Alec said, straightening out a scowl and plastering his face with a smile to please his boyfriend.
"Oh, I'm sorry sweetpea."
"I'm saying this on behalf of my brother that pet name is not ok." Jace said, wiggling an accusing finger at Magnus who just rolled his eyes.
"Will, Jem, Tess, this is Alec Lightwood and Simon Lewis."
"A Lightwood, I'm not too fond of those."
"You seemed quite fond of Isabelle." Jem said frankly, noticing the way Will had observed Isabelle, especially when she walked in front of him, but Clary found the rest of his attention was towards Tessa. Will didn't respond just shrugged his shoulders knowingly.
"Well, I am, he's nothing like Gabriel. And Gideon was it?"
"Yes." Tessa confirmed with a small smile.
"Alec is my boyfriend," Will raised his eyebrows and Tessa coughed slightly but Jem just sat nodding politely, "Sherwin here is a daylighter, he's Clary's best friend and Isabelle's-" He stopped, not knowing what to say. No one knew what to say when it came to Isabelle and Simon, when Clary asked Simon always responded with an "It's complicated." Or an "I don't know."
Everyone had given up after a while.
"Sherwin?" Jem questioned, "I thought your name was Simon."
"It is."
"Your name is Sherwin or Simon, you've lost me I'm afraid?" Will asked.
"Sheldon." Magnus said jutting his head at Simon, who would be blushing if he could.
"My name is Simon, this is not the point! I can walk in the daylight because when I was dying Jace saved me by letting me drink his blood. That is why they call me a daylighter." He finished with and exasperated sigh.
"Say it louder Sherlock, it's not like anyone would kill you if they found out." Magnus said sarcastically, Clary knew that if any other vampires found out about this it would be just a bit of a problem. Scratch that, a huge problem she thought.
Simon didn't reply, just putting his hands on the table and shaking his head at the sparkling warlock that was sipping a tall blue drink that had appeared from nowhere.
I'm not sure if I like writing from Clary's perspective, I don't think it's as interesting but if you guys keep enjoying this, I'll try and post every Saturday from now on! Thanks