"All day! You're gone all day, you don't phone, you don't let me know if you're alive or dead, and then, when you finally decide to grace us with your presence, you come back with that girl and another mundie!" Isabelle exclaimed, slamming cupboards and draws for emphasis as she stood in the kitchen, the stove bubbling away.

"First, my phone broke, I think Clary sat on it. Second, I was a little busy being a Shadowhunter and doing Shadowhunterly things, third, Clary isn't a mundane, and fourth ... what on earth is that you are cooking? Because I promise you, I will not ingest it, no matter how much I love you," Jace said, rummaging in the fridge for something he could deem edible.

"Why didn't you bring Alec with you? He's your parabati?" Isabelle asked him, turning away to stir the pot on the stove.

Jace froze, not knowing what to say.

"Since I only just discovered that a supernatural world resided beneath my own, would one of you be so kind as to explain what a parabati is, and why that matters? " Clary asked.

Sometimes Jace forgot that Clary wasn't a Shadowhunter. It unnerved him.

Fortunately, Isabelle told her. "You're a mundane, so you have no idea what it's like to have a parabati: there are no words for it in the English language. It's a bond, a friendship, that goes deeper than anything else. Your parabati is your partner, someone sworn to defend you nom what, to be by your side nomatter what, even in death. Which is why," she said, narrowing her eyes so that they were mere dark slits as she glared at him, whispering so that Clary couldn't hear"you should have taken Alec. You're not invincible, Jace, no matter how much you try to pretend you are. You don't have to prove yourself to anyone."

She cast a covert look at Clary, who was laughing at something Simon has said. In an effort to break the tention in the room, Have enveloped his sister in a one-armed hug and patted her head as if she was still twelve. To him, sometimes she still was.

"Izzie, you know I can take care of myself. But this is bigger than us, and I have to protect Clary. She's like me, Isabelle: her parents were killed, and she never knew why. I inadvertently dragged her into this collosal mess, and I need to be the one to keep her safe. That is our mandate, after all. Isn't it? To protect mundanes in need?" He was pleading with her and she knew it. Jace never asked for anything, not like this.

Isabelle sighed as she set the pot on the counter to let it cool. "While that is all very well and good, don't forget about the family you already have, who love you like blood. Now go get Hodge and leave the mundanei n here; I don't want to have to deal with getting reprimanded because of you being callous yet again. He also thinks I'm cute and appreciates my culinary skills, which is more than I can say for you."

Whilst Clary was off with the blonde idiot doing whatever they were doing, Simon sat with Isabelle, eating the condition she had made. She wasn't a great cook, he had to admit, but his culinary skills extended only to ordering pizza, so he couldn't judge.

"So, what's the deal with you and Clary?" Isabelle asked as she was trying the kitchen, her back to Simon.

"We've been best friends since practically the dawn of time, I can't even remember what life was like without her. After my dad died when I was really little, I only had Rebecca, my sister, to hang out with because our mom was always so busy trying to make ends meet, which wasn't her fault. Then I had Clary and she became my whole world." Simon blushed, realizing he was telling some beautiful stranger things he hadn't even said aloud.

"It must be nice," she said, turning now to fully face him, gorgeous even with a pair of golden yellow rubber gloves on and a dishcloth in her hand, "to have someone like that in your life who you know will always be there for you. Obviously, I have Alec and Jace and our younger brother Max, but he stays with our parents and they're not always here. Then there's Hodge, but he mainly just does his own thing. Since we can't go home and don't socialize usually with Downworlders, even less so with mundanes, I will admit it does get rather lonely."

Even though he knew he shouldn't really be asking, he just didn't want to see someone so sad, he asked "What sort of things do you like? You seem like a pop girl to me."

"We don't usually get a lot of time to relax. We learn and train until we become adults at eighteen, when we have our travel year and can take part in Council meetings. Alec's eighteen so he can go, but me and Jace aren't old enough yet. With those whole Valentine fiasco, there's bound to be a great deal of unrest. I probably shouldn't be telling you any of this; you're a mundane after all," Izzy said, turning away from him.

Some unnatural impulse overtook him and Simon grabbed her wrist, steering her so that she faced him. He brushed the hair out of her eyes that covered her face like a black lace veil. "Izzy, I'm glad you told me. Clary's my best friend and she's caught up in all of this and I want to help her, but I can't do that if I'm in the dark about everything. I'm blind enough as it is."

This elicited a smile from Isabelle, and Simon's heart lightened at the sound of it. She looked him in the eyes and said, "You know, for a mundane, you're pretty sweet."

"What can I say? Unlike Clary, I take my coffee with sugar. Maybe it's that?"