Heya guys, here is another chapter.
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Luvmusic87: Thank you! Hope you enjoy this.
Guest: I am glad that you think so. And I like Will and his acting too.
Hotlight: One of those comments was used to influence me in this chapter, so thanks. And... well, you shall have to wait and see about Camille. But I am hoping so too.
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Lu xxx
It was a Saturday. But not just any Saturday. The Saturday before the wedding. Which meant that all hell was breaking loose in Will's apartment as Camille and Magnus tried to make arrangements. Will was sat on the sofa, watching as adults rushed around doing seemingly pointless things such as deciding on colours and flowers and rings and all sorts. Camille was going to a dress fitting at some points, they were finalising the menu, and everything was just chaos. He hated it, and wished that he could just escape to his room, but someone was supposed to be bringing over the suit he was wearing and although it was all sorted Camille wanted to double check for the sixth time that the colour would go well, and so didn't want him buggering of anywhere. Basically, she was enjoying torturing Will by making him endure all of the crap that he had nothing to do with.
Will didn't want to have anything to do with the wedding either. He had refused to be the ring bearer, or a page boy, or an usher. He was refusing to sit at the front. He had tried to refuse to go to the wedding, but Magnus had drawn the line there. He had told Will point blank that his son would be coming to his wedding, no doubt about it, that was happening, even if he was going to be a pain in the arse throughout the entire thing. Which was a shame. But he was determined to bring backup to at least the ceremony itself, even if it involved some heavy duty lying to everyone.
After a quarter of an hour, however, whatever guy had the suit still hadn't turned up, and Will had had enough of it. He pushed himself wearily off of the sofa and wound his way through the crowds of fretting people towards his dad, who was slumped on the island in his kitchen, rubbing his temples with his fingers and looking like he was about to murder someone. Will leant his elbows on the island and looked intently at Magnus.
"Hey Dad."
Magnus jerked upwards, clearly surprised. When he saw Will he relaxed a little but still looked irritated and stressed.
"What is it Will?"
"Um… I was wondering if you could take me to the Institute?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm needed here, and so are you, for that suit thing."
"Dad, you know full well that Camille was just making that up to annoy me. And you are clearly not doing anything helpful here."
"I might be."
"Yes, but you aren't."
"You know that Camille will murder me and make your life living hell if we go off now and leave her alone in this."
"Dad, she thrives in this sort of environment, she loves chaos. And anyways, I don't care. She can't make my life living hell if you won't let her.
"Fine, okay, we'll go. But I'm not happy about this, Will."
"You are Dad. Of course you want to get out of here. It's giving you a headache – I can tell."
"Okay, fine, fine, you have me. Just give me five minutes, yeah, and I'll meet you outside in the hallway. And I am just dropping you off mind. And I only want you gone a couple of hours."
"Yeah, yeah. Thanks Dad. You're the best!"
Will gave his dad a quick hug before expertly navigating his way back through the main area of the apartment – his dad had held enough parties that he was used to it – and into his room, pulling the door shut behind him. He fell onto his bed and grabbed his laptop from where he had left it on his pillow, typing in the password with the ease of something that had had years of practice on it, and then went on to his email. He sent a quick message to Max, and as soon as the boy had responded a few seconds later he slammed the lid shut and jumped outside to the landing where his dad was waiting to take him away from the absolute hell that was Camille's wedding planning.
Max was just playing a random game on his computer, one he didn't even really remember the name of, when a message announcement appeared on his screen. He frowned. He barely got emails, and so when he did it was annoying and exciting all at once. He clicked onto his email and then smiled. It was a message from Will, asking if he wanted to meet him in the tower of the library as soon as humanely possible. He replied with a short yes before going out of his room and into the kitchen.
His dad was stood by the counter, clearing some mess or another up, and Tessa was sat happily in a high chair, banging her hands on the table and shouting total nonsense. He went up behind his dad quietly, his feet padding noiselessly across the tiled floor, and carefully, ever so carefully, prodded Alec right in the small of the back.
He jumped a mile.
Alec spun around as Max laughed and clutched his sides, going a little pink but smiling as well. He put down the soggy cloth he had been using, which had now dripped water all over the floor, and leant against the counter, his hands loosely gripping the edge.
"What's up Max?"
"Will asked me if I could go to the Institute like now?"
Alec raised an eyebrow. Tessa shouted something.
"Oh yeah?"
"And…"
"Max, I know that you'll have already agreed."
Max sighed.
"Okay, okay, you win. But can you take me over?"
"Sure. But I'll have to take Tessa with me. How long are you gonna be there?"
"He said no more than two hours."
"Okay. I think what we'll do then is that you can go off with Will and then I'll stay in the building and go and read to Tessa or something and then we'll come back home. Clary should still be out by the time we get back so we should be okay."
That afternoon Clary had gone out to have coffee with Luke, Max's teacher. As it turned out, Luke was Clary's… well, not even technically step dad, but the only dad she had ever known, and the person that she thought of as her father. Apparently, Luke had gone away with Clary's mom and then she had run off, so he had come back, but when he had tried to find Clary it proved impossible. He had been searching for nearly five years when by pure luck he turned out to be Max's teacher at school and then Alec had met him at parents evening a couple of weeks before. Since then, he and Clary had been meeting up a lot, getting to know each other again and catching up with what had been going on in each others lives. Most of the time, Tessa had gone too but today she had been left behind because Clary had wanted to spend some quality time with Luke without having to worry about her or deal with her when she was being a pain or anything really.
"Sounds good. Can we leave now?"
"Yep, just let me get my coat. Could you fetch your own and Tessa's? They're on the two leftmost pegs."
"Sure."
Max walked over to the hooks beside the door and shrugged on his own blue zip up jacket before picking off the hook – with some difficulty, and standing on his tiptoes because the coat was so short and the peg was quite high up – Tessa's little toggle up pink piece of some fabric that Max didn't know. It looked like a mixture between denim and tweed and felt, but it wasn't scratchy. And it had an imitation sheep skin lining. If the coat had not been pink Max had the feeling that he would have been quite envious of his cousin.
He strolled back over to Tessa and plucked her out of the high chair, settling her on the floor and kneeling down in front of her. He helped her put her thin, fragile arms into the silky sleeves and then carefully toggled her up. She giggled happily and poked at his nose and pulled at his hair, and he laughed and scooped her up into his arms. She was quite heavy but nevertheless he settled her comfortably of his hip and wound a single strand of her silky golden hair around his finger. She giggled happily and clenched his fingers in her own slender fist.
"Good Maxie!"
She laughed. That really lit a grin up on Max's face – he loved it when Tessa said his name or smiled her cute little grin at him. Especially over the past couple of weeks she had become more like a little sister to him than like a cousin. Suddenly there was a cough from the door and Max looked up from Tessa to find Alec leaning against the doorframe, smiling. He gestured out of the open door.
"Are you two quite ready to go?"
"Oh, yeah, sorry…"
"No, I think it's cute, you being such a little dad to Tessa."
Max blushed a little and walked towards him and out of the door, still holding Tessa, her little arms wrapped firmly around his throat. He waited in the hallway until the sounds of the door closing and Alec fiddling with the key stopped with the key clicking softly as the door locked. Then Alec came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Come on then Max. Let's get going."
And all three of them stepped into the elevator, talking softly as it began its descent.
Will had been waiting on the stairs to nowhere in the greenhouse for around a quarter of an hour when Max finally walked in with a little girl clutching onto his hand and a big grin on his face. Will himself smiled when he saw her. Tessa. The twins' little cousin. She grinned a toothy grin to match his as the pair walked up closer to him.
"Hey Max. How are you?"
"Good. You?"
"I have just had the morning from hell."
"Hell! Hell hell hell!"
Tessa giggled. Max frowned.
"How come?"
"Oh, Camille faffing about and all sorts of chaos going on. The usual really."
Will had chosen not to tell Max about just how soon the wedding was going to be, because he didn't really fancy being bombarded with questions about it. He just wanted to completely forget about it and let it not bother him. Except it was bothering him. It was bothering him entirely, like having a permanent, ridiculously annoying and painful itch that no matter how much you strained or stretched or tried to scratch was always a fingertips distance away, close enough to be very irritating but not close enough to do anything about.
He just wanted it over and done with and rid of. And soon, if at all possible.
"Oh. I should have guessed it was Camille."
Max sat down next to Will and pulled Tessa onto his lap, where she cuddled up to him, sucking her thumb quietly and thoughtfully staring off into the distance. She appeared to all of a sudden gotten very quiet.
"Yep, she's always ruining things for me. But it is fine, because I have you and Alec and Tessa to keep me sane and happy."
He smiled affectionately down at his little cousin and ruffled her hair gently. She didn't appear to notice much, or if she did, she didn't seem to have the energy or the inclination to react.
"Anyway, on a lighter note, are you free next Saturday?"
Max looked a bit startled.
"Um, yeah, I think so. Why?"
Will fished out the piece of paper – well, card – which he had carelessly shoved in his pocket before leaving his apartment.
"Would you be able to meet me here, looking relatively smart, from about half twelve to about half two?"
"Well, I'll have to ask dad but I don't see any reason why not. Why then?"
"Oh, just because I am very busy all day and those are the only times I am free. And, I want to spend more time with you."
"Will, you come over to my house every evening after school."
"Yeah, but as your brother I would, under normal circumstances, spend most of my time with you. And since you are not a normal sibling, meaning that you do not drive me completely bonkers, I want to spend as much time with you as possible. Is that alright?"
"Yeah, sure. And for the record, although you can be a little bit crazy at times and I may act angry, I'm just exasperated, that's all. You don't really annoy me. In fact, most of the time it is funny, its just I feel that if you are going to be the bad example, I ought to be the good example of the two of us. Even if I am younger."
Will chuckled.
"I know that you don't really get annoyed with me, Max. I can read you like a book. You wear your emotions on your sleeve in bright flashing colours."
"Oh…"
Said Max, timidly and shyly.
"Max, that isn't a bad thing. I think it is very brave. I wish I was that brave. My dad always taught me to close off my emotions, because if I wore them proud someone would see them, use them to their advantage and break my heart. I think really he was talking about himself then, saying that he shouldn't have been so clear about how he felt with dad, or none of the awful stuff would have happened. Really, I just think that he is making excuses for acting like an idiot."
It was only after Will had made his little speech that he realised what he had just done. He had said dad without thinking about it in reference to Alec. Normally, he would have to consciously force himself to say it, and it was pretty obvious to all those listening that he was making himself saying it. But just then he had done it without thinking, without even batting an eyelid at it, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, as if he had been doing it all of his life. Max seemed to have noticed too, as he was looking at Will in a peculiar way with his head cocked to one side. Still, he didn't make any comment on it. That was one of the best things about Max. He left situations like that alone, unless the one who had said it brought it up in conversation. Which Will most definitely didn't want to do.
The strangest thing about the whole thing, however, was that Will had enjoyed calling Alec dad. It felt so… right. And it made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
"Thanks."
Said Max, clearly puzzled.
"Anyway, how is it going with Clary and Luke?"
Will had been very interested in what had been going on between Clary and Luke – Mr Garroway, he reminded himself – since he had found out about the whole thing. It seemed like a confusing but interesting and good, welcome situation for Clary, who had been having it a little bit, okay very tough recently.
"Oh, I think it is going absolutely brilliantly between the two of them. She's out doing some sort of activity that adults think is fun right now, that's why we have Tessa. Seeing him is making her feel more happy and secure, I think, and she seems more relaxed now; she hasn't had a panic attack in about four days, and she had been having them daily."
Will nodded.
"Hey look, Tess has fallen asleep!"
Will had come up with the little pet name for Tessa almost as soon as he had seen her, and it had stuck really rather quickly for him. Tessa herself also really seemed to like it; she had clapped her hands enthusiastically and announced it several times proudly to anyone who would listen as soon as Will had started to call her it on a regular basis. She really was sweet, and Will really did love her. He was looking forward to watching her grow up more.
"She has. She was probably exhausted – she has been being ridiculously lively all morning and making a mess of the apartment and causing so much havoc that dad had to strap her into her high chair to stop her breaking anything important or worse, hurting herself."
Will chuckled at that and stroked Tessa's hair in a brotherly fashion.
"Typical Tessa. Always wanting to get involved and somehow just causing chaos when she tries to. At least she hasn't done any permanent damage to herself for anyone else or anyone's property or possessions… yet. Touch wood. We can't go tempting fate now or she will start to chew the corners of the Austen."
"Hmm. I wouldn't mind if she destroyed the Austen up here, although Hodge would be furious. Now, if it was the Dickens she took a liking to…"
"No, no, I refuse to even think of such things! No child related to us could ever damage dickens, to do so would be to dishonour our name and be disowned."
"Indeed. I am glad you feel so strongly about Dickens. It restores my faith in humanity – way too many people are into soppy romances these days."
"I agree."
At that moment Tessa snapped open her bright green eyes and yawned sleepily, reaching up towards Will with her tiny hands.
"Can I take her?"
"Yeah, sure, go ahead."
Max lifted the girl up and passed her carefully over to Will, who took her into his arms and plonked her down on his lap, cuddling her close. She giggled happily, and snuggled into him, gripping his arms with her hands rather forcefully in an attempt to cuddle back. It sort of worked. A bit. It was the thought behind the gesture that counted.
"So, has there been any news about Jace?"
Max shook his head.
"No. Dad has been calling and calling and texting over and over again, but there is nothing, no replies or messages, and the calls always go straight to answer phone. Dad reckons that either Jace has turned off his phone in order to ignore us or that he has broken it so hat he doesn't have to speak to use. Either way, it is really upsetting Clary, and so it's making the whole apartment seem really gloomy and depressing."
"That is bad. I wish he hadn't acted like a douche and buggered off like that and done all of that crap to Clary. I actually liked him quite a lot when I first met him, when I didn't know all of that stuff he had done, or hadn't done. He was pretty epic."
"He did set fire to the kitchen, Will."
"I know, and that was part of what made him epic. He acted a bit like a kid, like he understood us." Will sighed. "I guess it was that characteristic of his that really got us in the god awful mess in the first place. Wasn't that what you said? His inability to… to grow up."
"Yes, that is what I have been told. I mean, it is probably very confusing and complicated and difficult to understand. And probably very very private and very very secret since normally dad trusts me with that stuff and he didn't. I am very trustworthy."
He sounded a bit miffed.
"Yeah you are. I'm not, though, I do tend to blab. Hey, that's probably why he didn't tell you." He bumped Max with his shoulder. "He knew that you would tell me, as you would want to confide in me, your wonderful brother," Max snorted. "As your wonderful, fantastic brother, and then he knew that I would just tell anyone I could get my hands on. Though, to be fair, I can keep really big secrets."
Max snorted again.
"Like what, William Bane?"
"Well, I haven't told dad that I know you and dad and that I even know I have a brother, have I?"
Will smirked, and Max nodded defeatedly.
"Okay, fair point, I suppose that you haven't. But still. You do sometimes reveal secrets. Embarrassing secrets. Remember?"
"I have already said I am sorry about that, Max. Several times."
"Hmph."
"Anyway, you'll ask dad about next weekend right? Twelve thirty and two thirty? You will ask?"
"Yes, Will, I shall ask. I probably will be free anyway, but I will aske, I will ask, I will ask…"
Will laughed.
"Okay, enough, stop taking the piss."
"Ooh, language Will!"
Will hit Max over the head with a book – a thin, inexpensive one, naturally, so as not to do any serious damage to either party.
"I already have two dads, Max, I do not need a third, thank you very much, I am already getting the epitome of the evil stepmother."
"I reckon Camille may be more evil than every evil stepmother in every fairy story put together and then timed by two."
"I will have to agree. She is awful. Hey, technically she will be your evil step mom too!"
"Oh, the horror!"
Max laughed as he said it though.
"No, I would prefer it if your kept her to yourself Will."
"Shucks, my evil plan ruined! It appears that I will not be able to scare the evil bitch that is Camille Belcourt off with the hideous terrifying demon that is my brother Maximilian Lightwood! What shall I do?"
"I have told you this already. My name is just Max. Not Maximilian."
"I love the fact that that is what you fret about, and not the rest of that sentence."
"I was just about to go on to that. I am not terrifying."
"No, you are quite right. You are about as scary as a bunny wearing a duck suit. Actually, no, I take that back. Ducks are terrifying too. Hey, I could use an army of ducks to take down Camille! Normally I hate them, but you have to make allowances when it come to such an urgent situation!"
"Only you, Will, only you."
The three of them sat there for the rest of the two hours they had, Will and Max laughing together and sharing quite frankly pointless conversation whilst Tessa giggled and pulled at their hair, tried to crawl off and at one point actually bit Will, which led to a lot of swearing from Will whilst Tessa stared around innocently and Max rolled about on the floor laughing. They draped some ivy over Tessa's hair and then plaited flowers into her locks to make her look like Rapunzel, and overall had a beautiful, carefree and at some moments downright mad afternoon.
When it was finally time for Will to go, he carefully handed back Tessa to his brother and after a quick goodbye hug to both of them he walked out of the greenhouse tower and down the many winding staircases. On the way down, he ran into his dad, and after briefly saying hello and sharing yet another hug he hopped down the final few steps and out of the concealed door, winding his way out of the many bookshelves crammed into the main section of the library and out to the massive double doors that marked the entrance to the Institute. He slipped out of them sneakily to find Magnus waiting for him outside. He said hi to Magnus and then together they walked down the street, hand in hand.
Wait, what?
Okay, I am really sorry, I didn't have time for 5000 but I did write 4000 for you, and I did try really hard to get that much done so please appreciate it. I will write and upload 6000 words, I swear on the angel, once I get to 60 reviews. That will be by the end of Tuesday AT THE LATEST! You can do it! I love you guys! Please review!
I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Lu xxx