Who: Simon Lewis & Jace Herondale When: Backdated: End of January, after this text. Where: Simon's van What: Jace needs help picking up workout equipment. Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly Status: Complete
Patience was a virtue and Jace knew it. He also knew it was one he didn’t possess so he kept checking the time on his phone as he leaned against his building waiting for Simon. The store he’d bought the equipment from wasn’t scheduled to close for a few more hours so it wasn’t that he was worried about not getting it tonight, he just didn’t like waiting too much. It was something he needed to work on. Eventually. As his cousin kept reminding him. He heard the sound of an engine coming to a stop close by and he looked up, a small grin spreading across his face when he saw Simon’s van. “I was starting to worry you were standing me up man,” he joked.
***
The last thing Simon wanted to do at that moment was be around Jace or anyone related to Isabelle after the conversation they had had to have a few hours earlier. It wasn’t because things had ended badly, but because neither of them wanted Alec or Jace to know just yet that Isabelle was leaving. Isabelle wanted to be the one to tell her family and Simon had a tendency to open his mouth when he wasn’t supposed to.
However, Jace needed help and Simon wasn’t one to say no when someone needed help. Pulling up to the curb outside Jace’s building, Simon rolled down the passenger side window, “No. Not standing you up. Just a lot of traffic.”
***
“You have freakishly good hearing man,” Jace said, opening the passenger door and climbing inside. “One of these days you’re going to have to clue me in as to how. Because I could use it when I’m on the bike. Is it just me or are people out here almost allergic to using their horn?”
***
“One of the perks of being a vampires.” Simon said, tapping one of his ears, a smirk upon his lips. There were a lot of downsides to being a vampire, but there were also some upsides and his enhanced sense of hearing was definitely one of those upsides. “They’re also allergic to using turn signals.” Flipping his own turn signal, Simon pulled away from the curb once Jace was situated inside the van and headed towards the store.
***
“Never going to get used to that. Just going to go right ahead and say it. Although...you get strength along with that right?” Jace said with a grin. “Because I’m still getting a handle on these runes. I think I got the strength one right but I’m not sure I want to place all my bets on it.”
“Yeah I’ve noticed that too. Although I think that could just be a thing now because my dad does it too. When Nine and I went for New Years - Dad kept forgetting to use his turn signal when he and I went out to run an errand for Mom.”
***
Simon chuckled as he began driving towards the store, “Trust me, it took me quite awhile to get used to it myself.” Despite how long Simon had been a vampire, there were still times when even he wasn’t quite used to certain things still, “Yeah, it comes with super strength too. You want me to do all the heavy lifting too? First I play Lyft driver then I play mover?” He smirked as he glanced over at Jace.
“I don’t understand why it’s so difficult to use the turn signal. It’s not like it’s very far. It’s right there.” Simon pointed to the left of his steering wheel then shrugged.
***
Jace laughed at Simon’s teasing comment, shaking his head at his friend. “I was just going to ask you to help me get it into my place. Or at least stick around to call somebody if I drop one of the pieces on myself being an idiot.” He wasn’t joking about not being sure that he was ready to put all of his faith in his ability to reproduce the runes he kept seeing in his dreams.
“Personal theory? People are idiots.”
***
“If you drop something on yourself, I’m gonna take a picture and send it to Alec. Then I’ll ask him and Magnus to come help,” Simon smirked as they got closer to the store, “And you’re right. I’ve come to realize that most people are idiots.” At least it seemed that way most of the time.
***
“I guess I should be grateful that you’ll at least ask them to come help.” Jace joked with him. “They said something about parking on the side to make it easier to get the equipment out.”
***
“I mean, after they finish laughing I’m sure they’ll help.” Simon teased as he pulled the van around the back of the building as Jace instructed, “By the way, do you have an elevator or something in your building? Or do we have to lug this stuff up a lot of steps?” Simon assumed there was an elevator, but he knew of some apartment buildings that didn’t have them. He just hoped that his assumption was right.
***
“And probably want to send the picture to my mom.” Jace said with a laugh. “If there wasn’t an elevator I’d probably have just found a gym. Because even I’m not that much of a fitness nut.” He said. “And if my parents ever do come to visit I’ll want them to check the place out. And I can’t picture my mom being willing to climb up the stairs after a flight.”
***
“Makes me glad that I don’t have to climb any stairs to get into the Institute.” Simon was so used to talking about the Institute openly and with everything else going on with Isabelle, he momentarily forgot that Jace didn’t actually know about the Institute being in the OC yet. He was so early in his dreams still that they hadn’t told him yet.
***
“The Institute from the Dreams? It’s here? I need to come see it. See how it matches up with what my brain is telling me to expect.” Jace said as he looked around for a place they could park and load the equipment into the back.
***
Simon nodded, “Yeah. That one. It’s been here for awhile.” Now that Isabelle was leaving, Simon wasn’t sure what he was going to do about his living arrangement cause The Institute was far too big for just one person and considering he wasn’t a Shadowhunter, he didn’t feel like he belonged there without one. “You can see it whenever you want. I mean, technically it’s your home after all.”
***
“We should hang out there next time. I’m sure that you guys have cable there here. We’ll watch a movie.” Jace said as he pointed out a parking place. “But we’ll deal with that after we get this taken care of. I’m going to try not to tell these guys to fuck off for changing their deal after the fact. You have my permission to tell me to shut the hell up if it looks like I’m about to. Sound good?”
***
“Yeah, that sounds good,” Simon would mention later on that he wasn’t sure if he’d be staying there much longer, but now wasn’t the time for that. “Trust me, I won’t pass up a chance to tell Jace Herondale to shut up,” Simon smirked as he pulled into the space Jace had spotted.