time stopped still just for them
an;; for @kagekenma because honestly i met elijah a few days ago and yet they are so supportive and done nothing but compliment me and my fics and for that i love them. i’ve been trying to write them something for two days but my brain is so blocked and its 4 am in the morning (what the fuck triss) and so i have enough sheer stupidity to just. do it. im sorry.
[ao3]
the entire world falls apart but they have each other and in all honesty that has never mattered as much before as it does now.
magnus calls clary biscuit and he calls her ‘partner in crime’ but sometimes just shortens it to ‘partner’ and says it in the most western accent he can possibly muster. sometimes he lies on the floor and izzy joins him and they stare at the ceiling for a little bit until magnus tells her about how when he was younger he didn’t want to ever eat oranges because the little white things freaked him out. he thought they were the fruit version of veins and thought it was murder and so he stubbornly refused to eat them and instead grinded his teeth firmly and crossed his arms until his mother got him something else to eat.
isabelle sometimes thinks about that when shes bored or when she feels like swimming into the ocean, letting the cold water take her. they are nowhere near the ocean jace dutifully reminds her to which she rolls her eyes and throws a grape at him. he huffs indignantly before taking part of simon’s cake and hurling it at her, and they somehow start a small food fight in the cafeteria at seven a.m. in the morning when no one is awake enough to really register anything yet. they both get detention for three weeks later but its worth it because jace glares at her to which she throws a wink in response earning a small pinch.
later on they’re sitting in english class when mr. garroway announces that he's giving a pop quiz. as the entire class groans he gives a shit eating grin and tells them to put their book away (‘city of bones’ and its honestly one of the worst thing isabelle has read all year. the author keeps slut shaming a character iridessa and is refusing to allow cara and iridessa to hook up) so they can take their quiz. suddenly isabelle feels panic rising through her chest because shit she didn’t read the last two chapters assigned for homework and throws simon a panicked look.
he rolls his eyes at her before giving her a brief nod. as soon as the word ‘begin’ escapes garroway’s mouth all the papers turn over and silently the students start working. isabelle skims all the answer and to her relief finds that they are all multiple choice. from the other side of the room simon starts giving off symptoms of having a cold. isabelle listens intently; the two of them developed a system years ago. in multiple choice tests they had an easy way of helping each other get the write answers if they were completely clueless. a cough meant ‘a’, a sniffle meant ‘b’. a yawn meant ‘c’ and a sigh meant ‘d’. it was a great system they had worked out and the sole reason both of them had straight a’s in all their classes. after the test izzy skipped out of the room and pressed a small kiss against simon’s cheek in thanks.
clary and izzy usually sleep in the same bed. it honestly wouldn’t matter because they go to a goddamn boarding school and honestly - its the 21st century who genuinely believed boarding schools were a good idea anymore - it would be impossible for any adult to know if they are sleeping in their proper beds. (thats a lie clary later reveals to a startled isabelle, apparently teachers have fun and place bets too) they never do anything too loud because there are two other girls in the room, lydia branwell and maureen brown. the four of them have grown to be quite good friends who do protect each other and look out for one another. because they know how cruel the world is and they know that just because they’re young doesn’t mean they aren’t hurt.
god how they’ve all been hurt so terrifyingly much. maureen, who chews gum loudly and laughs wholeheartedly. she throws her head back, letting her hair dance. she has a nice voice and sometimes when all four of them are awake she quietly sings, almost as if she believes that if she sings hard enough the pain will go away. and then theres lydia. lydia with golden hair and a heavy heart. she methodically organizes everything in her life and throws herself into work. she smiles but it never quite reaches her eyes. she loves boats and sometimes stares out the window searching for something. sometimes clary sits by her and they stare out quietly together. sometimes she brings her sketchbook and quietly draws for hours. later those drawings make their way onto the wall and the girls each find time to stop and look at them as if their room was an art exhibit.
and thats the thing. because nothing about their life was how they portrayed it on t.v. there was a fucking war going on, people were dying out there and yet inside their school it was as if time stopped still just for them.
alec grows more comfortable with himself. over the years his love of boats has decreased but there is still a collection of them on his shelf. magnus sometimes picks them up and admires them because a few are vintage and are rare. clary sometimes sneaks in and draws magnus looking at them. later when he catches her, he grins and tells her that if she needs him to model he’d be happy to do it and so she throws her erase at him. it lands right above his nose, in between his eyebrows. they laugh and play around until raphael comes back with a shit ton of homework that he forces the two of them to help him with. (in all honesty he doesn’t need it but he also doesn’t know how else to ask them to stay) (they understand and for that hes forever grateful)
meliorn sneaks in booze and they all have a small party in the boys dorm room. simon is a lightweight to the utter surprise of no one. unsurprisingly its magnus and meliorn who can hold out the longest. they film jace stripping and giving clary a small dance, and they’re all drunk and happy and for now it all fits. isabelle finds a deck of cards and tells them shes a magician. then she decides that its the perfect time to put on a show and thats how they wound up searing in a chimney for the queen of hearts.
simon announces that santa claus is going to be coming in december and it was already september so they all needed to start cleaning their act up. alec rolled his eyes and said that simon was jewish, since when did he give a shit about santa claus to which simon responded that he didn’t. he was just looking out for the rest of them because honestly they were a mess and needed to clean their act up if they wanted to get presents. raphael rolled his eyes and proceeded to remind simon that they also weren’t nine years old and knew santa wasn’t real. to which magnus looked shocked and said that he still believed in santa which led to an hour long discussion as to if santa was real or not.
isabelle laughed and walked arm in arm with her two brothers before realizing she forgot her history binder in her locker and had to return to her dorm room to get it. when she came back the class was deadly silent which the most unusual thing that had ever happened in it. (and one time jace stood on the teacher's desk, swung around his underwear and sang ‘i’m a sexy monkey’ before receiving detention for 2 and a half months. and to make sure that he wasn’t going to be alone he got alec and raphael detention throughout the time) alaric - the one and only teacher who allowed the student to refer to him by his first name was shaking at his desk. before him was a list of names with ages.
isabelle didn’t need to ask what those names meant. (there was a war going on and sometimes she forgot about it through all the homework and dances)
raphael sat with her painting her nails pink and yellow for the spring formal. he was sitting with one leg tucked under him while the other was laying beside her. izzy was flipping through date options and raphael was either turning them down or giving a very short ‘maybe’ (‘chris’ ‘no’ ‘eron’ ‘god no’ ‘why is there a god no?’ ‘because anyone named eron is worth a god no to emphasize my point’ ‘michael’ ‘maybe’ ‘really?’ ‘hes gotten less annoying since two years ago iz’ ‘yeah right’ ‘how would you know hes not in any of your classes’ ‘fair point. what about david’ ‘no’ ‘why?’ ‘because i’m saving david for alec’ ‘didn’t alec hook up with david like a month ago’ ‘did he?’ ‘i think so’ ‘damn. i promised to set him up with someone’) later as her nails are drying he pulls out outfits from her closet and they decide what she should wear together. eventually they settled on a short pink lace with a matching purse and 3 inch heels.
once everythings been decided for her they settle on izzy’s bed and watch movies from disney channel. they make plans about the future, and eventually isabelle confesses that shes always wanted to just travel the world. but she can’t, it doesn’t fit into the perfect mold she has to be. raphael grows very quiet and then says to just fuck it because who knows how long they had left to live. (the words bear more meaning than either of them meant)
clary plays cards with her while she thinks of a world where they’re all happy. she imagines another world where they all have to survive on the mountains, and another wear they’re on an island. she dreams as magnus kisses her temple every night before going to sleep. alec comes to her and tells her that he wants to run away and she gives him her full blessing. they make promises to steal a car, maybe an old pickup truck because no one bothers people with pick up trucks, and capture jace before running away. (they never get that far)
the end of the school year comes and theres no reason to really be sentimental because they’ll be coming back again next year and the one after that. they all have each other's number, and any other social media thing they might want. they all will stay in contact and izzy doesn’t know why shes feeling so emotional about this. she loves them all so much and they all know each other in such strange ways and love each other so deeply. but thats not enough and deep down they all know it.
when they step outside of the gate time picks up faster than ever. they hear about more deaths than ever before and don’t know what to do. because they are kids and are new to all of this. even though they’re the new leaders they are also tired and confused. they do the only thing they know how to do, they reach over and hold onto each other.
