Chapter Four

"What's this?" Rafael asked Clary,

"It's a portal; it can take you anywhere you think of. But only trained Shadowhunters can use them," Clary replied as she stood back from it.

They were in Clary's room, getting the colours and paints ready for a fun and messy session of art. Rafael had seen Magnus create a portal before. This portal looked exactly the same, but instead, there were runes on the rim of this one and it didn't glitter as much.

"How can you create one? You're not a warlock,"

"That's what makes me so special."

Magnus had told him that Clary and Jace were different types of Shadowhunters, but he didn't tell him how. By sticking around Clary whenever he was at the Institute, Rafael had learned that Clary could hide objects in paintings and now he found out that she could create runes that didn't even exist. It was a little annoying to be surrounded by special people and be the normal one who had no talents or special qualities, but he had a feeling that the violin would be his first of many talents.

Max didn't mind staying still, as long as he was doing something interesting. Colouring in Clary's drawings was a way for him to be creative, even if he didn't really know what he was colouring in. Sometimes Clary would draw something simple like a flower, a tree or even Max himself, but the drawing she had given him had too many swirls and lines for him to work out what it was, so he just guessed what colour everything was meant to be.

"That's really good, Rafael," Clary said as she picked up Rafe's piece of art,

"What about mine?" Max asked excitedly.

Clary tilted her head sideways as she looked at his finished creation, "You coloured in the grass…blue,"

"I realize it was grass," Max looked down,

"I must admit, it is a very complicated drawing. It's meant to be the split between the Earth, heaven and the underworld, but I do like the idea of blue grass," Clary picked him up, "maybe we should hunt for some,"

"Yeah," Max clapped, "and then we could plant yellow flowers,"

"Do you mean daffodils?" Rafael said as he put his drawing next to Max's,

"No, the other ones,"

"Sunflowers?"

"Yups."

Max knew he wasn't the smartest. He hadn't been taught much before he was taken in by Magnus and Alec, but he was catching on fast. In less than two years, he knew how to spell better than most children his age, he could speak some Spanish (thanks to Rafael) and he knew almost every shade of every colour (thanks to Magnus). But anything too complex- like maths, drawing anything other than flowers and hearts and saying long words- was too much for his young and special brain to handle.

"What we do now?" Max asked as he played with Clary's hair,

"Well, I think dinner should be ready by now," Clary smiled.

Dinner was Max's favourite- tomato pasta with meaty bits in it which somehow ended up staining his blue cap. Though Max loved it the way it was, Rafael regularly put a red sauce on his food that he said would be too hot for Max. But today, Max was determined to try some.

"Max you can't," Izzy said as she moved to thin bottle of the sauce away from him,

"But I want it," Max complained,

"You're too young," Clary insisted,

"For god sakes, just give it to him or he'll start crying and I have a headache," Jace said and on cue, Max began to cry.

Izzy took Max's bowl, put a drop of the sauce on his pasta, mixed it in and then slid the bowl back to him. Max sniffed and looked down. His pasta looked exactly the same, it smelled exactly the same and hopefully it would taste the same. He took a spoonful of his pasta and slowly brought it up to his lips. Everyone was staring with worried faces, well, everyone apart from Rafael, he had an anticipating expression on his face. Max shoved the pasta in his mouth and began to chew. At first the pasta tasted the same, but then his tongue started to tingle and a pleasant burning started to occur on the inside of his cheeks.

"It's yum," Max giggled as he dug into the rest of his pasta.

After dinner, Rafael and Max wanted to play chase with Izzy, Jace and Clary. Max loved playing chase, mainly because the Institute was so big that there was almost too much space to run in, but also because it was fun watching the three babysitters run out of breath and soon become annoyed at Max and Rafael's stamina. Magnus and Alec could keep up simply because the apartment wasn't that big and eventually Magnus would use his magic and make the boys float onto the sofa and stay there. Max and Rafael planned their routes around the Institute so that they didn't bang into each other and quickly split up and ran as fast as they could. Max always had Jace running after him- probably because he was the only one that could almost keep up- and the sound of Jace's feet against the wood only made Max run quicker. He wasn't sure if it was magic making him so fast or the fact that he was so hyper, but after not even ten minutes of playing, Max soon turned back to see Jace stop and catch his breath.

"How are you so hyper?" Jace panted,

"That's what dad says," Max giggled,

"Great parabatai think alike."

Max started running again and after a couple of minutes, he decided to give Jace a chance and took a break to get a glass of lemonade. When he got to the kitchen, it appeared that Rafael had the same idea and was already drinking lemonade with a glass waiting for Max on the table.

"Maybe we should play another game," Rafael suggested,

"Like what?" Max asked as the only game he could ever think of was chase,

"I have an idea."

Jace hated chase. It was the worst game ever invented, especially when it included Max Michael Lightwood-Bane. He followed the little one into the kitchen to find him drinking with his brother. Izzy and Clary came in behind him, both of them as exhausted as he was and they took a seat while guzzling down water.

"Can we play another game?" Rafael asked,

"Please say chess," Jace begged,

"Hide and seek."

At first, Jace was ready to protest, but hide and seek meant that the boys would have to stay in one place and Jace could leisurely search for them without wanting to dunk himself in ice cold water.

"Okay, we'll count to ten and remember, you have to stay in one place," Jace agreed.

After he finished his probably tenth glass of water, he began to count down from ten and the boys scuttled off giggling like evil masterminds.

"We need to get tranquilizers for those two," Izzy said as she got up and prepared herself,

"I may invent a sleep rune," Clary laughed.

They were a handful, Jace had to admit, but there were points when the boys were fun to be with. Sometimes Max would experiment with his magic which involved making Izzy chase her floating shoes or Jace giving him things to change Alec's stuff into. Rafael was a very intelligent and curious child and it was nice to have him ask Jace so many questions and actually listen to what he had to say. But right now, Jace wanted the boys to fall into a deep sleep and only wake up when he wanted them to.

The first place Jace searched was the library, but they weren't there. Then he went to the training rooms, but they had chosen a different hiding place. He went to the main sitting room to the study to his bedroom to the bathrooms and the basement, but he couldn't find them anywhere. He was roaming the hallway when he heard Clary call his name in a panicked way. Jace thought Max had hit his head again as he ran to Clary's bedroom, but what he found out was much worse. Izzy had her arm around Clary who was breathing heavily in front of a swirling portal.

"It will be okay," Izzy reassured her,

"What happened?" Jace asked.

Clary turned to him holding Max's blue and pasta stained cap. It didn't take Jace long to link it all together.

"Well, they found the best hiding place."