Simon knew he'd been an idiot the moment Maia walked into his apartment. He could sense the awkwardness in the air as Maia saw Paige with Jordan. Simon wanted to hit himself over the head. Before he could do anything however, Maia walked over to Jace, who was still sulking in the corner, and sat beside him. For the moment, it looked like this wasn't about to blow up in his face. Oh, when had his social life gotten so complicated that he had to be careful who he invited to what?

Despite the fact that this party was technically about him, it felt to Simon like it was about Izzy. She was all but jumping up and down with happiness, and talking about how she wanted to burn his sling. Simon put a stop to this idea, but her enthusiasm made him smile. Simon admired the energy Izzy attacked life with. He, himself, seemed to passively let life go by, but not her. Maybe that's why they worked so well together.

It wasn't long until Maia left. Frankly, Simon had been surprised she'd come at all. Maybe Simon should have done more to get those two back together, if only for his own convenience. Then again, Simon wasn't sure what had Maia all tied up in knots, since she'd had more than one opportunity to win Jordan back in the last year. It was all rather exhausting, and Simon decided to just be happy his own love life was finally simple. Well, simple in every way, except that he and Izzy still hadn't slept together since becoming an actual couple. Simon could sense that she wasn't going to bring it up, that she was waiting for him to make the first move. It was nice to think without so much pressure, and he was grateful to Izzy for her patience.

If he wasn't testing Izzy, then what was he waiting for?

Simon knew how much he adored her, but he wasn't yet sure if he loved her. For such a small thing, it seemed to make all the difference in the world. Was that it? After so much sex without love, was Simon waiting because he wanted to be with someone he loved, who loved him the same way in return? And if so, was that so unreasonable?

Before the party ended, Simon saw Jace go back into the group to talk to Clary, and couldn't help but be curious. There were downsides to both Clary's options, and Simon didn't like that his friend had to make that decision. Watching out of the corner of his eye, Simon saw Clary pull Jace in for a hug. They stayed like that for a while, then left the party early hand in hand. Simon made a mental note to ask Clary what happened later.

As the evening died down, Simon and Izzy went back to her place since Jordan had the second room, and two people could not sleep on the couch. Recently, Simon had come to feel like he was spending more time with Izzy and Maia, rather than Jordan, Clary, and Jace. But it was worth it. Simon liked sleeping beside Isabelle. There was a comfort in not sleeping alone. Simon remembered how it had felt on the nights Clary wanted to sleep at her own place while they'd been dating. Simon had missed the warmth and tranquility of another person's presence as he relaxed into sleep. Simon was glad that, unlike Clary, Isabelle wanted him to stay at her place every night. Once Izzy fell asleep, she had a habit of moving close to him and putting an arm over him. She rarely did this when she was awake, and it made Simon smile every time. He liked that even unconscious, she wanted to be closer to him.

The next day was a Saturday so no one had class, but Simon had a shift at Tim Horton's this morning. He'd managed to keep his summer job during the school year, though very part time, which was good since it meant he wouldn't have to find another job next summer.

Simon woke Izzy with a gentle kiss, and she sighed contentedly. Rather than get up, Simon stayed to watch her. He knew Izzy was awake, even if she wasn't quite aware yet, lost in that state between actually conscious and half-asleep. She looked so beautiful with her dark hair spread out over the pillow, her eyes closed. Simon smiled, reaching out to stroke her hair.

After a while though, Simon had to get up to get ready for work. Kissing her forehead, Simon went to get out of bed but found his arm held hostage by his very awake girlfriend.

"Don't go," Izzy whined.

"I have work," Simon explained.

"I'll pay you to say," she said. Simon laughed lightly and got up.

"I'll see you at Alec's later," Simon said as got up to look for clothes.

"I need a kiss before you go," Izzy argued. Simon sighed as if this was a burden, but made his way, smiling, to the bed. He leaned over and kissed her lips with the intention of leaned back after. Izzy had other ideas. She wrapped her arms around him, deepened the kiss, and stole a few more before finally letting him free.

"Thief," Simon told her grinning.

"Totally worth it," Izzy said as she snuggled more comfortably into the blankets.

"Alright, now I'll see you later," Simon smiled, his work clothes in hand he managed to get out of the room before she distracted him again.

Izzy had always liked to hang out at her brother's apartment between classes or on weekends, but she'd the frequence had greatly increased since Christmas. Before he'd been officially dating Isabelle, Simon had known Magnus only through Clary, but now as Magnus was engaged to his girlfriend's brother, Simon was getting to know him better. Or at least Simon had been spending a lot of time lately watching Magnus hang out with his girlfriend.

Before arriving for his shift, Simon sent a quick text to Clary, asking her how it had gone with Jace. After three hours of serving coffee and making breakfast sandwiches, he got a break and checked his phone.

'Jace says he has faith we can make it,' Clary's text read. 'We are gonna do long distance. I'm telling my professor yes on Monday.'

'Do you want me to keep an eye out for strange blondes hitting on him?' Simon texted back. He didn't get an answer before his break ended, but after Simon's shift, he returned to his phone to see a reply.

'Nah,' Clary texted. 'I trust him. Everything's going to be fine. You'll see.'

'I'm glad you're so confident,' Simon replied as he left work to head home and change, and by home, he meant his actual apartment rather than his girlfriend's. He had some clothes at Izzy's, but not his shampoo. Then again, they were both so close to campus it hardly made a difference really. When he arrived home, Simon saw Clary and Jace sitting very close together on the couch watching tv. He smiled, but didn't do more than wave to them as he went down the hall to the bathroom.

Once he was clean and dressed in clothes that didn't smell like coffee, Simon headed out to meet up with Izzy. Even though it was a short walk, Simon still bundled up in his full winter gear, mittens and all. It was January, and the weather wasn't quite ready to give up on winter yet, even if Simon totally was. When he knocked, it was Alec who answered the door.

"Hey," Alec greeted him before moving aside to let Simon enter. "You'll never guess what they are up to?"

"Watching Poldark?" Simon chuckled.

"Ding ding," Alec said sarcastically. "We have a winner." Then he added in a more cheerful tone. "Though I do much prefer this to before."

"You mean when all they did was yell at each other?" Simon replied.

"Oh no!" Magnus's yelling voice carried across the room. "He isn't really going to- I mean what about his wife?"

"Now they yell at the tv," Alec laughed, turning to join the new friends in the living room.

"She's his first love," Izzy was explaining to Magnus. "He's having a stupid moment."

"How can you be so calm?" Magnus asked her, looking rather out of sorts himself.

"Let's see," Izzy began counting on her fingers. "Well, I've read the books, and watched the 70s tv show, which means I totally knew this was going to happen. I've been waiting for it."

"Diabolical writer!" Magnus exclaimed. "Why can't they just let those two be happy for a change?"

"That wouldn't be very good writing," Izzy objected.

"Well, I'm left handed," Magnus replied. Izzy just blinked at him for a moment.

"Get it," Magnus sniggered. "Writing, Righting."

"Sweetie, the cutlery got it!" Alec said.

"Why is it always the cutlery?" Magnus asked. "Like you never say 'the napkins got it' or 'the table'?"

Rather than answer his fiance's question, Alec leaned over the back of the couch to kiss Magnus spiderman style.

"Hmm," Magnus sighed as they broke apart. Magnus's head was leaned all the way back, looking at up Alec.

"You are now required to sit here with us, and embrace the awesome," Magnus told him. With a sigh, Alec moved around the couch and took the empty place beside Magnus.

Simon went to sit next to his girlfriend on the couch. With the four of them it was only a little crowded, but that was alright by him. Simon had watched Poldark with them over the holidays, and though he wasn't nearly as wrapped up in it as Izzy and Magnus were, he did enjoy the show. It had interesting characters and well structure plots, not to mention beautiful landscape shoots of England. It was nice just sitting after his long day at work.

The episode ended, and without hesitation, Izzy swiped the remote and played the next one. When that episode ended, Alec decided to make tea and a conversation started up. While Alec was gone, Izzy and Magnus began talking about the episodes contents, and somehow Izzy noticed Magnus's nail polish.

"It's peeling!" she exclaimed, shocked. "When did you put it on?"

"A few days ago," Magnus shrugged. "It doesn't last very long."

"You're using the wrong brands," Izzy told him. Simon didn't catch the names of all the brands she listed, but Magnus seemed to know them. Once Magnus had responded with the types he bought, Izzy began rummaging through her bag, pulling out a small bottle of what looked to Simon like normal nail polish. The way Izzy described it, however, was anything but normal. She insisted on redoing Magnus's nails during the next episode, Simon found himself sitting on the chair so Izzy had space on the couch to lay down a towel to protect the furniture.

"Definitely weird," Alec said, returning with drinks for everyone.

"No kidding," Simon laughed lightly.

"I blame Christmas, and you," Alec replied.

"Me?" Simon asked.

"Yes," Alec said, but he didn't elaborate, instead walking away to sit in the opposite chair before Simon could ask for clarification.

"You're not allowed to use that cheap crap anymore," Izzy stated as she finished off Magnus's nails.

"Yes ma'am," Magnus replied with a chuckle.

"Alright then," Izzy said with a nod. "Glad we straighten that out."

"Please don't straighten my fiance out," Alec whined.

"Was that a pun!" Magnus exclaimed, gleefully.

"Possibly," Alec chuckled.

"You're officially a bad influence," Izzy told Magnus, smiling. "Now let's find out if that idiot can fix his marriage."

"I thought you already knew what happened?" Magnus told her, his eyebrow raised.

"Okay then let's watch this idiot fix his marriage," Izzy corrected. "Onto the next episode!" And she hit play before anyone could stop her.

Simon felt like he was in a television coma by the time it ended. Of course, it was preferable to the work coma that had made up the majority of his day.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Alec exclaimed suddenly. He turned to Magnus and said, "Catsby's meds."

"Oh right," Magnus replied, getting up at once and joining his fiance in the kitchen.

"Catsby's meds?" Izzy asked before Simon could.

"Yeah," Alec said poking his head out of the kitchen to look at his sister. "When we got Catsby's test results back, it turns out he has a thyroid problem, so he's on medication now. One pill a day."

"How do you get a cat to eat a pill?" Izzy asked.

"Pill pockets," Magnus added, walking over carrying a little package of something with a cat on the label. "They are this soft treat thing that you put the pill in, and usually they eat the whole thing rather than eat the treat around the medicine." He turned to glare at the cat near his feet. "But sometimes they're a sneak who eats around the pill just to get another pill pocket."

"Meow, meoow," Catsby said innocently.

"And we have to feed him the pill before dinner, otherwise he won't eat it," Alec added.

"But he's been eating more at meal times," Magnus said cheerfully. "Doing much better. Thyroids are important, it seems."

"No, you think?" Alec said sarcastically. Magnus pretended to hit Alec with a tea towel before the two of them returned to caring for their elderly cat. Once the kitties were fed and pilled, they ordered pizza rather than make dinner. This left more time for binge watching Poldark, which made Izzy and Magnus very happy. Simon almost felt like he was back at the Lightwood manor over the holidays, which as far as he was concerned, was the perfect way to spend a Saturday night.

OMG Is that Magnus and Izzy bonding I see? ^_^ hehe it's a wedding miracle! lol And look! See I didn't kill the cat. Aren't ya happy!

Anyway... I probably shouldn't be updating yet but I just hate seeing finished chapters sitting there doing nothing and I think you all know this about me since I've never been able to convince you that I will stop updating. I can count the people who review this story on one hand with fingers to spare and yet I keep writing it. sigh. It's like I enjoy writing or some such silly non-sense. Stupid addictive hobby taking over my life. Rude!

Who wants to know how stupidly addicted to writing I am, huh? Well, just now I did a recount for fun and it seems since the start of 2016 I've written and published over 916,000 words of fanfiction. That's like 458,000 words a year, 38,167 a month, equally average of writing 1,272 a day for two years.
Yes I like math... even when it freaks me out. Damn! Of course, there were days when I wrote close to 6,000 words in a day and other days when I didn't even string two words together, but you get the idea. I'd say I need a boyfriend, but... already got one of those so...

Okay, sorry for the tangent, here is your sneak peek!

Sneak Peek Chapter 117

Since realizing what she'd lost, Maia hadn't been in the best mood ever. Okay, that was a bit of an understatement as Maia was currently sitting alone at a bar on Valentine's Day, trying to find the bottom of her glass.

"Is this seat taken?" It was a guy's voice, but not one she recognized. Maia turned to face the tall white man with blonde hair standing beside her. He looked unkempt, with uneven stubble on his chin, and a untrustworthy gleam in his eye.

"Yes," Maia told him. "By my very large, strong, boyfriend who will be back any moment."

"Nah, I don't think so," the man said. "See, I've been watching you from over there for the last few hours, and you've been sitting here alone all that time."

"He's just late," Maia tried, but she knew it was hopeless. This guy clearly didn't believe her, and why would he if he had indeed been watching her all evening? The idea made the hair on the back of Maia's neck stand on end. She turned slightly, trying not to be too obvious as she checked to see if the kind bartender was in view. He wasn't.

"Oh no, lonely girl," he whispered moving closer. "There's no one here with you, no one coming for you." He was far too close now, and Maia was getting very uncomfortable, regretting her decision to leave the house today.