Returning home after her opening shift at work, Maia dragged her tired sore feet through the front door. Dropping her purse in it's usual spot, Maia made her way into the apartment calling out to see who was home.

"Just me," Jordan's voice answered from the couch. Maia went over to sit beside him, and he paused the show he was watching to talk to her.

"Where is everyone?" Maia asked.

"It's Monday," Jordan reminded her. "Izzy had her first training shift with Clary today, though they will probably be home soon."

"Oh right," Maia replied. "And I suppose that means Simon's at work." Jordan nodded.

Maia turned her attention to the tv. It looked to her like an anime though she couldn't quite place it. "What ya watching?"

"Inuyasha," Jordan answered.

"Is it any good?" Maia asked casually, thinking it an innocent enough question until she saw his face.

"Any good?" Jordan replied in mock horror. "It's only awesome!"

"Oh is that all?" Maia laughed. "Good, as in FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood good?"

"Definitely!" Jordan exclaimed. "But for different reasons."

"You better play it then," Maia chuckled, as she curled up next to him to watch the show.

"Just to give you some background," Jordan said as he reached for the remote. "Inuyasha is a half demon who travels with four friends: a monk, a demon slayer, a young fox demon, and the reincarnation of his ex-girlfriend from the future who has priestess powers."

"Ok-ay," Maia said slowly, trying not to laugh at his description.

"It's better than it sounds, honest," Jordan replied. "Anyway they are all trying to hunt down and kill another half demon named Naruku. Each character has different reasons, but basically he was insanely cruel to them all in different ways while trying to poison their hearts. Oh and corrupt the Shikon Jewel which is-"

"Why don't you just let me watch it honey?" Maia giggled, turning to kiss him into silence.

"But this episode is already well past season two," Jordan explained though he did sound a little distracted by her touch. "If you wanna watch it for real we could start at the beginning." Maia didn't reply but rather continued to kiss him, running her hands through his hair.

Distracting him only worked for so long. Eventually a sound from the show pulled his focus and Jordan turned to look as presumably some major event occurred.

Maia chuckled lightly as she turned to watch. This new version of their relationship to survive and continue past the first intense spark phase was still a little new to her, nevertheless she was enjoying it. There was a relaxing kinda calmness to the state that was so much more stable than it had ever been before.

Stable and with better communication. She remembered perfectly how it had felt to have Jordan consult her before he applied for the master's program. It would mean another two years of school for him and with them together that would affect her too. When he'd made her a part of that process she'd really felt like they were a team in a way they'd never been before. Before they'd reached this healthier place it wouldn't have felt so natural for such a communication to be made, but now it just felt right, ya know?

Speaking of things feeling right...Maia was really glad talking to Paige at Alec's party last night had gone so well though that fact had surprised her. She wasn't sure she was as capable of forgiveness as Paige was. Even so, she was grateful. It had really cleared the air.

By the time Izzy and Simon got home Maia had decided Inuyasha was a show worth watching from the beginning - despite it's main two characters' fondness for calling each other's names as loudly as they could over and over again.

"How was your first day?" Maia asked Izzy once the show was paused again.

"Great!" Izzy said, smiling. "The morning was mostly just paperwork, but once that was figured out I got to help customers. They said I had a real eye for getting people things they liked enough to buy." Izzy was beaming. Maia didn't want to burst her bubble and explain that the novelty of employment would wear off faster than her mascara.

"I'm glad you like it," Maia just said instead.

"Oh and Clary had a good time too," Izzy said. "Though her sense of style isn't equal to mine she was really great at being nice to the mean customers."

"Let me guess," Maia tried not to laugh. "You only helped the nice ones."

"Well obviously," Izzy shrugged. "Why would I go out of my way to be nice to rude people?"

"Why indeed," Maia laughed. "Do you mind if I give you a friendly piece of advice?"

"Sure."

"Work on your customer service smile for those rude people," Maia said. "Because at some point your boss is gonna expect you to talk to them."

"Hmmm," Izzy said, thinking about this as if it were a new concept to her.

Just then Simon walked calmly over to the middle of the living room and collapsed face first onto the sofa.

"Tough day?" Jordan offered. Simon just groaned.

"This is it!" Simon said dramatically into the sofa cushions. "This is my life now. I'm gonna be asking if they want sugar in their coffee for the rest of my life!"

"That's not true," Joran smiled at him. "Sometimes you have to ask what size drink they want or which Timbits."

Simon lifted his head just far enough off the couch to give Jordan a look of pure loathing.

"Poor baby doesn't like his job anymore," Izzy cooed, going over to gently stroke her boyfriend's hair. "I've told him to quit but he won't."

"Why not?" Jordan asked.

"It's better than no job," Simon explained. "I'm done with school and it's not like I have anything else to do."

"Hey if your girlfriend is okay with you being an unemployed netflix binger I'm not gonna complain," Jordan chuckled.

"Izzy, I love you but you really don't understand this whole paycheck equals roof thing," Simon sighed.

Izzy just shrugged. "Your paycheck doesn't affect our housing," she stated simply. Simon seemed to do a double take.

"But we all pay into the joint account that the bills come out of," Simon disagreed.

"Yeah and there's a lot in there," Izzy continued. "Mom keeps beating me to the rent." Inhaling sharply she added with excitement. "Oh we should use it to throw a party!"

"I've been saving most of my paychecks," Maia confessed. "Ever since Izzy told me she didn't need as much for bills now that there's four of us here."

"The apartment is in my name," Izzy smiled. "Don't you remember? It was just me and Maia here at the start."

"Schools started again," Jordan added. "So I've cut back my shifts at Tims. Oh and I have gotten a few responses from jobs in my field so I might be quitting soon anyway."

"That's it!" Simon said, throwing his arms into the air. "I'm done. Double double coffees be damned. I'm giving my notice right now." And he pulled out his phone, probably to begin composing an email.

Maia sighed. "I should probably look into a better job too, I just really don't know if I have the energy."

"Then don't worry about it," Jordan smiled at her. "You like it well enough right?"

"Yeah," Maia replied. "I mean it's nice being the one who knows stuff instead of the one who's in training. If I started over it would be such a drag."

"Have you thought about applying for management level jobs within the grocery store?" Jordan asked.

"Yeah. Maybe that's a good place to start," Maia agreed.

"Does this mean I won the job race?" Izzy asked, puzzled. "I mean Jordan seemed to have found something else, Maia didn't look, and Simon gave up."

"If it makes you happy Izzy then yes," Maia said. "You won the competition you created that only you really paid attention to."

"Perfect!" Izzy said excitedly. "Now onto my next order of business: cheering up my sad Simon." He'd finished whatever he was doing on his phone now and Izzy held out her hand to him. He took it and allowed himself to be led down the hall and towards their room. The door clicked closed behind them.

"Best turn this up," Maia said, gesturing to the tv. "Otherwise we'll be able to hear whatever sounds they make next."

"One of these days we really need to get our own place," Jordan sighed.

"Yeah but you really can't beat the cost of living when there's a Lightwood around," Maia chuckled.

"True," Jordan agreed.

"So what's this job in your field stuff you might be getting?" Maia asked.

"They are like individual jobs through a larger company," Jordan explained. "Some are coding, which is great, but others want me to design the back end code and the front end graphics for a website and I just have no idea how to do the graphics."

Maia thought for a minute then added, "Have you thought of asking Clary?"

"No," Jordan said, his voice intrigued. "But now that you mention it that's a great idea. Next time Izzy invites her over maybe I'll ask."

"You know you could reach out to her yourself," Maia reminded him.

"I know," Jordan sighed. "Just feels so weird now with the whole group dynamic, since Clary and Jace broke up and then everything with Paige."

"I know," Maia smiled. "But we cleared the air with Paige, so at least that's a start. Who says we all have to stop hanging out just because school is over?" Jordan raised an eyebrow at her. "At least for more of us," she added, messing his hair up affectionately.

"Thanks," Jordan said softly as he leaned in closer to her. Maia put an arm around him and returned her to attention to the show they'd been watching.

"So what did you think of the random episodes in the middle?" Jordan asked. "Ready to watch it for real from the start?"

"Oh, why not?" Maia chuckled. "What else have we really got to do today?"

"Well I'm pretty sure there's laundry," Joran began. "And I suppose I could get a jump start on this week's reading material. Plus those dishes in the sink…"

"It was a rhetorical question!" Maia exclaimed, smacking him playfully on the shoulder. "I don't need to be reminded how lazy I am."

Jordan laughed. "Then from the beginning it is," he said.

It didn't take more than the first ten minutes of episode one for Maia to understand why Jordan had been so sure letting her watch season three would be a good idea.

"Inuyasha is supposed to be the good guy," Maia whined. "He was all carrying strangers with sore ankles home and rescuing kids a minute ago and now he's trying to kill Kagome. Like wtf?"

"Let's just say he has a lot of learning to do," Jordan replied. "And he didn't exactly wake up from his nap in a good mood."

"You don't say," Maia replied. "Like really the worst mood ever. Who ruined his day?"

"His first love, Kikyo," Jordan explained. "As far as Inuyasha is concerned the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with shot him down for no reason. Plus this random girl smells like her and looks a bit like her. He's a confused puppy."

"No kidding," Maia agreed. "So does this whole what actually happened get explained eventually? Do we get to see how he and Kikyo went wrong?"

"Yeah. It's way at the end of the main series, but before the conclusion act," Jordan explained. "And it's a two parter in the middle of a different plotline. No clue why they put it there, but that's where it is."

"If it doesn't fit there," Maia began "then why don't we just watch it early?"

Jordan let out a gasp of mock horror. "And watch it out of order? But I just convinced you to watch it in order!"

Maia laughed. He was such a silly dork sometimes, but at least he was her silly dork.

Anyone got a guess why I haven't written anything in weeks... if you guessed that I recently re-watched ALL of Inuyasha you'd be right. XD lol. Only managed to get this chapter to work when I decided Jordan would be a Inuyasha fan too. I think it fits well enough. :)

Anyway...

It occurred to me recently how totally and completely my life has changed since I uploaded that first chapter of this story on Sept 5th, 2016. I know rationally that four years really isn't that long and being 24 or 28 isn't really that crazy a difference, and yet SO much has happened to me in those years I can hardly believe how different my life was then.

Since Sept 5th, 2016 I have quit a job I hated, failed to work from home, got another job I loved, ended a long term relationship that really needed ending, sold a house I didn't want to sell, moved back home, got my driver's license, bought a jeep, started a new relationship, changed jobs again so I could go back to school, moved down the street to live with my new partner, and just about a month ago we got engaged. And yet despite ALL of that I am still writing this story! It just blows my mind sometimes. Not to mention the fact that in those years I also have published ten multi-chapter stories and completed nine of them.

When I really think about it the only constant factor in my life throughout this story has been my cat. I'd put a picture of her adorable-ness here but fanfic doesn't allow images. :( My Instagram has some pics of her if anyone wants to see. She's black and white and fluffy! My username on Insta is the same as here: Writesalott

Sneak Peek Chapter 175

Alec sighed. "Fine, have it your way," he said. Then added in a more cheerful voice, "Though I can't claim to be too fond of the reason it is nice seeing you on a Monday morning, my little workaholic husband."

"I took a personal day," Magnus replied. "Using my vacation time."

"Yeah I know," Alec grinned, his tone turning quite flirty. "Do you think we could use those for other uses as well."

"Naughty boy," Magnus teased back. "Get your head out of the gutter. Don't you have work today?"

Alec shrugged. "Switched my shift with Maia. She opened this morning. Since I couldn't talk you out of this, I wanted to be able to come with you if you needed me today."

Magnus was so touched by his husband's kind gesture he almost changed his mind and let him come.

"I love you," Magnus said instead, reaching forward to gently stroke Alec's cheek.

"With all my heart," Alec replied easily.