Disclaimer: Alec, Jace, Magnus, and all other characters in this work are from The Mortal Instruments trilogy by Cassandra Clare and do not belong to us. No money is being made… trust us, we'd know, poor fangirls that we are.

Author's Note – From Miyabita: Thank you so much for all your reviews last chapter. I apologize for the long wait, so as a proper apology, I'll be putting up a few chapters that have been sitting around in the fic folder of my computer.

Warning: This fic deals with a lot of mature concepts, one of which is sex between two men. If you're not old enough, you should stop reading right here.


Right Moves

—a joint fic by ariviand and miyabita

II.

"Change of plans," Jace said, snapping his cell phone shut and letting his eyes focus on the redhead sitting across from him.

She gave him a look that said, "Yeah? What?"

He slid his cell phone back into his pocket. "We'll be meeting them in a few hours at Taki's for an early dinner."

Clary blinked at him, looking confused, but she didn't protest. "Great, I guess. What are we doing until then?"

Jace's lips stretched into a grin, and he tapped on the door of the carriage, giving some directions to Brother Jeremiah before turning back to look at her.

The carriage took a sudden U-Turn, and Clary went sliding into Jace. If she had looked up, she would have seen Jace's grin turn into more of a gentle smile.

/

Alec was in the library, reading, when Isabelle found him.

"What did Jace want?"

He didn't look at her, but his fingers stilled from where they were anxiously rubbing the edge of the book. "What do you mean?"

"He called you earlier, right?"

"Oh. Yeah."

Silence.

"So," she prompted. "What did he want?"

Alec sighed, closed the book on his lap, and looked up at her. "He wanted me to do some research for him on someone named Magnus Bane."

"Déjà vu, weren't we just talking about him?"

Alec nodded. "Yeah, I told him about our conversation. He wants to go to the party tonight, and he wants to bring the mundane girl along."

"Clary? She's with that guy?"

Alec turned, startled at the sound of another voice coming from behind his sister. It was that… mundie boy. What had that girl called him? Stewart? No… it was more like…

"Simon," Isabelle snapped, "I thought you were going to stay in the kitchen."

"Clary's with Jace?" he asked, ignoring Isabelle's glare.

Alec gave Simon – so that was his name – an appraising look. So the guy was a mundane, and he was clearly trespassing where he wasn't supposed to, but damn if Alec didn't have a little bit of respect for the kid. Most guys couldn't stand up to the patented "Isabelle Lightwood Glare", something she had learned from her mother. But Simon seemed unfazed. If the boy was anyone other than Clarissa Fray's best friend, Alec might have shown him some courtesy.

Instead, he snapped, "Yes. She is." Then, to his sister, "What the hell is he doing here?"

"He showed up this morning… when you were on the phone with Jace."

"Why is she with him?" Simon asked. Okay, scratch that "respect" thought; the kid asked too many damn questions.

"None of your business, mundane," Alec retorted.

"That's some great hospitality you've got there. Jace teach you that? Bet he teaches you a lot of things, huh?"

For Simon, it was just one of his normal annoyed quips. Isabelle was fairly certain the boy couldn't have known about Jace and Alec.

There was a tense silence in the room. Isabelle held her breath, knowing instantly how Alec would take the comment, looking from her brother to Simon, about to pull the boy out into the hallway and away from her brother… when Alec snapped.

The book clattered to the ground, and Alec had his hands fisted in Simon's shirt, pushing him backwards against the wall. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" he spat. "What the hell do you know, mundane!"

Simon saw stars for a moment as his head connected with the wall. Then his eyes flickered from Alec's near-murderous expression to Isabelle's look of surprise. He wondered what he had said to set Alec off so badly. He'd seemed tame when they had met the other day. What had changed?

"It was a joke, Alec," Simon said. "Sarcasm, okay?"

"Alec, he's not worth it," Isabelle said from behind him.

It took Alec a moment to register what had just happened, what he was doing, and that he had severely overreacted to the situation. When he did, the flush that lit his cheeks was hard not to miss.

He let go of the boy and headed for the door.

"Alec?" Isabelle called from behind him.

"I'm not feeling well," he said, not turning around. Then, he slammed the library door behind him and headed towards his room.

/

Back in the library, Simon sat on the floor, dazed, and glanced up at Isabelle.

"I didn't mean—," he started.

"Shut up," she snapped, but she didn't move. Simon watched her; it was as if she were trying to work out a complicated math problem in her mind without the aid of pencil and paper. Simon tried, too. He replayed what had happened in his head, what he had said, how it might have been interpreted…

"Oh," he said, as cold realization crept over him. He knew he was a lot of things, but naïve was not one of them.

"He's gay, isn't he?" he asked Isabelle. This time she looked at him.

"I said, shut up!" But she wouldn't look at him, deciding instead to turn around and pick up the book her brother had dropped when he'd gone for Simon's throat.

"I don't care, you know. I'm cool with all types—" It was as far as he got, because Isabelle whirled around, hurling the book at his head. Simon had only milliseconds to duck.

"SHUT UP!" she screamed. "DON'T TALK ABOUT IT ANYMORE!"

This time, Simon shut his mouth. Well, metaphorically he shut his mouth. Literally, it was hanging open in a perfect "O" of surprise as he looked up at Isabelle. She bent down and hauled him up by his shirt collar, pushing him back against the wall.

Well, this is familiar, he thought.

"If," she was saying now, her voice low and deadly, "you mention anything to anyone I will personally cut off your balls and feed them to the next demon I see. Are we clear?"

"Crystal," he managed to get out.

Then she was storming out of the library, slamming the door behind her, heels clicking down the hall.

Simon picked up the book, put it back on the table, and slumped into the armchair that Alec had occupied only minutes ago.

/

Isabelle didn't go after her brother for several hours.

Part of the reason was because he needed time to cool off. The other part was because she had no idea what to say.

Well, that's not entirely true, she thought now, as she walked down the hallway towards his room, I'd really like to go through a laundry list of reasons why Jace is a horrible person and should receive a thousand lashes courtesy of my whip.

But she wouldn't; she knew she wouldn't.

Alec's room was at the end of the corridor. When she was younger, she had always hated going to get him for dinner. It felt scary and lonely all the way down here. Now that she was grown, the scary feeling had gone away.

It was just lonely now.

Isabelle knew part of the reason Alec had moved his room down here was to get away from the prying eyes of his parents. Of course, with the amount of time they spent away from the Institute, it was kind of a moot point, but she supposed it was the idea of being close to their rooms. For as long as she had known her brother was gay, had been old enough to understand the concept, she had watched his every struggle to keep his desires a secret, to keep his frustration in check, to suppress what he wanted and give and give and give.

Alec wasn't a saint; Isabelle knew that. He had his flaws and his weaknesses. But when she was little and her parents were away, it was Alec who fed her and bandaged her scraped knees and showed her how to handle a sword. She loved her parents, but she'd do anything for her brother.

And she supposed that was why she let him carry on with Jace, even though she knew it would only hurt him in the end. Because Jace was giving Alec something that he wanted, and Isabelle couldn't bear to take that away from him.

Even if it did mean that he was a little more jumpy lately or a little more quiet.

She knocked on his door. "Alec?" There was no answer.

She tried the knob. Locked.

"Alec Lightwood! I know you're in there!" More knocking.

After two or three minutes of this, the door finally opened a crack. Alec peered back at her, a set of black headphones perched around his neck.

"Sorry. I was listening to music."

Isabelle fought any flash of emotion in her face. She knew her brother only listened to music when he was upset and needed an escape.

"Can I come in?"

"Is the mundane still here?"

"Simon? Yeah, I think he's sulking in the kitchen or something over a cold cup of coffee." She didn't add that he'd stayed in the library for hours, probably avoiding her, before finding her and saying that he intended to stay until they went to see Clary and "that guy". Isabelle wasn't overly fond of Simon at the moment, but she supposed she could empathize with his dislike of Jace. Different reasons, to be sure, but dislike was dislike.

"He should go home."

"He wants to come with us… to see Clary."

"No."

"I'm pretty sure he's coming whether we like it or not."

"Isabelle," and this time she did flinch a little because he never called her "Isabelle" unless he was particularly angry, "we're Shadowhunters. Not mundane babysitters."

"I think I know that," she snapped. "But in case you've forgotten, Simon's a big boy and can take care of himself, Alec. He's also obnoxiously persistent and practically joined at the hip to Clary."

She watched the simmer of rage die down in his eyes until he seemed to deflate. "Yeah, I got that. But I don't like this at all. Someone's going to get hurt because of the two of them."

"Look, I'll keep an eye on Simon tonight, okay? I've been to plenty of Downworlder parties before; I know how they operate."

"Izzy, I don't—"

She pointed a finger at him and cut him off. "You need to go with Jace to corner Magnus for two reasons. One, to make sure he doesn't get himself killed. And two, to make sure he doesn't lose focus worrying over this girl. So stop sulking over what happened earlier and go get ready. We're meeting Jace and Clary at Taki's in an hour."

And before he could say another word, she turned on her heel and walked back down the hall. It took exactly one minute for Alec to close the door after she departed. She heard the audible "click" when he did.

/

Alec shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to keep himself from looking too sullen. They had only dined briefly at Taki's, hashing out a battle plan of sorts before Isabelle had pulled Clary off to get her dressed. Alec had loaned Simon a pair of black slacks and a pocketknife before they had departed to meet the others. To his credit, Simon hadn't said anything about the incident in the library. Oh, he had looked as if he had wanted to, but he'd simply remained silent. Alec appreciated that. A lot. That had been part of the reason he'd given the mundane boy the pocketknife. It wouldn't do him much good in a fight against a Downworlder, but it might buy him some time. And it looked enough like a stele that a Downworlder might hesitate before touching him. "Might" being the key word.

Alec's eyes slid over to Simon now. The boy was talking animatedly to Clary, who was listening intently and laughing from time to time. Both his sister and Jace were frowning at the pair. Jace he could understand, but Isabelle's frustration was a mystery (and would probably remain so until she felt like sharing). For his part, Alec hoped that Simon and Clary talked the night away. He hated whatever hold the girl had over Jace. The less time she spent with Jace, the better he'd feel.

Of course, every now and then, Jace would offer her a hand in stepping over a crack or a puddle or some other disgustingly simple obstacle that the girl wasn't able to manage in the heels Isabelle had given her.

Alec wanted the next obstacle to be an open manhole.

The thought was childish, but it made him feel a sick sense of satisfaction at the image the thought brought with it.

"Why are you smiling?" Jace's voice was suddenly in his ear, and Alec fought the urge to jump in surprise.

Trying to come up with something on the fly and failing, he said, "Uh, no reason. I guess I'm just looking forward to tonight."

Jace fixed him with a look that clearly said, "I think you're being an idiot, Alec Lightwood." But he only replied with, "I thought you hated parties."

"I do. But," his eyes fixed on Simon for a second, suddenly finding a scapegoat, and he lowered his voice as he continued, "that guy's been annoying the hell out of me all day, so…"

Jace smirked, understanding dawning in his eyes. "Itching for a fight? The mundane is pretty annoying."

"I heard that," Simon said from in front of them.

"Did you?" Jace asked dryly. "Let me correct, then. You are incredibly annoying."

"You slay me," Simon retorted, voice flat.

"I try." And with that, he was back to helping Clary, his conversation with Alec forgotten.

But Isabelle had heard, and she was now fixing him with her best, "Could you be anymore obvious?" look. He avoided her gaze, but she wasn't going to let him get off that easy.

"Alec," she said.

"What?"

"Could you at least try to have a good time tonight?"

This puzzled him. "Why? We're just going to ask the guy some questions, right?"

Her lips turned down for a second before she sighed. "Yeah, you're right."

But now he was raising an eyebrow. "Izzy? What's up?"

"Nothing. It's been a long day."

He was about to say, "Bullshit, why won't you tell me what's wrong?" but Jace piped up from in front of them.

"We're here. Looks like a lovely shithole, don't you think, Alec?"

Alec turned to look at the blonde, who was looking up, admiring the two-story building. Isabelle made a scoffing sound from next to him before shouldering past them all to finger the set of call buttons next to the front door.

"Please," she said, fixing Jace with a glare, "not all of us can be prissy prima-donnas like you and have a spotless room."

Simon choked on a laugh, and Jace made to retort, but Isabelle had all ready turned around, looking pointedly at the set of buttons before raising a finger and pressing down several times over. The buzzing sound made Alec wince.


Again, thank you to everyone for all your wonderful comments and encouragement. Feedback and constructive criticism is always welcomed and appreciated! ^_^