august 12, alec

[seveninches]

Alec has probably spent more time in Isabelle's apartment over the last few weeks than he has his own, but Isabelle still feels like they haven't really spent much time together. She'd wanted to give him his space to work through things, and besides, Isabelle has been spending a lot of time at Billy's, too. Out of solidarity she hasn't spoken to Magnus except for a cold text message telling him exactly how much she disapproves, but from what she can see, things seem to be looking up.

Isabelle doesn't know if she'll ever truly forgive Magnus for hurting her brother like that, but she is glad to see them mending things. Darrow doesn't feel right with Alec and Magnus apart, and she'd been surprised to learn how much she depended on the two of them to ground her. Not to mention keep reminding her that it's okay to date, maybe. Isabelle has always been a firm believer in love being for suckers, and watching Alec and Magnus be all ridiculous around each other had made her start to believe she might be wrong. Watching them fall apart had hurt, made her question the entire institution all over again.

It's about time the Lightwoods had some time to themselves, away from everything, so Isabelle tells Alec to stay in tonight, and she goes grocery shopping for the first time in what feels like forever. She probably shouldn't cook, but she wants to, wants to feel like she's doing something, even if it's just cooking a meal for her brother, which he'll probably try and avoid.

She has a soup bubbling away on the stove by the time Alec walks through the door, and chicken in the oven. She figures she can't really fuck that up, but she does have the number for pizza on speed dial, just in case.

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[seveninches]

"You're Nephilim, you don't need to be Billy," she retorts. Billy might be a superhero but the other day had more than proven that he can still get sick. At least in that respect, Alec and Isabelle still had the upper hand. It's odd though, that for the first time in her life, in Darrow she doesn't mind the times that she doesn't have it so much. Back home the idea would have been laughable, but here Isabelle is living a more mundane life than she could have ever dreamed, and a small part of her likes it.

"But it's your taste buds I'm trying to be nice to, not your stomach." Well, both, she supposes, but she does want him to enjoy coming here for dinner. Next time she'll do better, that's all there is to it.

"More wine?" she asks, figuring that they might as well drink while they wait.

[deflectere]

"I don't want to be Billy either," Alec said with a shake of his head. Not because he didn't like Billy but because it meant he wouldn't be who he was today, wouldn't have the abilities he did. His whole life would be different and that was a scary thing to imagine.

"Sure," he said, holding his glass out to her and nodding. "You know, in a few weeks, I'll have been here a year."

It was bothering him more than he let on. Manhattan just seemed so far away and he worried that the people he'd left behind would fade soon thereafter.