Clary Fray (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} angel_blood) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} madisonvalley,@ 2016-12-17 19:32:00 |
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WHERE: Izzy and Johnny’s home
WHEN: Before the ghosts came
WHAT: Clary goes looking for Izzy and finds Johnny instead
RATING: PG
STATUS: log; completed
| It might be getting colder, with the days getting shorter, but that didn’t mean that Clary’s training was going to let up.She had years to catch up on, and despite the angel blood in her veins, she knew she still had a long way to go before she really reached her potential. Most of the time, Clary trained with someone - with one of the Shadowhunters, or another of the super-powered people in town. This morning, she’d gone out to train on her own, but on her way back she decided to drop by Isabelle’s place to see if she wanted to go out for some hot chocolate. The way she’d worked herself this morning, she could use the calories. “Hey Johnny,” she greeted when the door opened to her knock. “Is Izzy around?” *** Johnny had actually only just gotten home. He’d made an early day of going to the garage, gotten everything out of the way, was thinking of surprising Izzy with a dinner out or something, but he hadn’t even gotten as far as putting real thought into it, much less getting the grease washed off his hands before he heard the knock at the door. For a second he thought about grumbling, but he opened it to see Clary and he grinned instead. He liked Clary. She had crap taste in boyfriends, but she was great. “Hey.” He held the door open in clear invitation for her to come inside. He never noticed the cold, as hot as his body ran, but he was aware that everyone else did and wasn’t going to let them freeze. “Uh, no. I don’t think she’s here. Probably out with Sue or something.” It was awesome, how well Izzy and Johnny’s sister got along. He’d never really been worried about them not, but it was good that they did. *** Clary recognized the name. “Your sister, right?” she said, accepting the silent invitation to step in. It was cold out, although she didn’t feel it quite as starkly as most people. Warming Runes for the win. Still, she wasn’t exactly as naturally heated as Johnny. Despite not needing the warmth, however, she stuck around. She liked Johnny too, and she didn’t get a lot of chances to talk to just him and catch up. “I saw her on the network a few times. How’s she doing?” *** “Good. Yeah. You know, now that she doesn’t think she’s dead anymore.” That had been a surprising twist when she’d first shown up. Johnny hadn’t even thought about that, tried not to think about it at all actually. It had happened because of him. “You should meet her some time.” It was sort of surprising they hadn’t already. Not because Johnny thought they had anything in common. They probably didn’t. And Sue was kind of...Sue. Nerdy and weird and really annoying and overprotective. Really big sister. Johnny had missed that a lot in the years that he’d been here alone. *** “I’d love to,” Clary said warmly. Sue did seem way too cerebral for her in her networks, but that was okay. She was family. And Clary was always open to family. And speaking of family… “What are you guys doing for Christmas? We should probably try to do something.” *** “We’re probably not doing too much.” They usually spent holidays just the two of them or with a couple of friends, got dressed up and went to parties if there were any going on, that was about it. “We should definitely do something. If your boyfriend can play nice with me for a while.” Johnny tried really hard to get along with Jace, who just didn’t make it easy. At all. *** “I’m not sure Jace can play nice with anyone for any length of time,” Clary said wryly. She loved Jace in all his prickliness, but she knew he wasn’t easy to get along with. Sometimes she wanted to kick him too. “But I don’t think we should make our plans based on whether he can play nice. We should just enjoy ourselves and our family and he can join us if he wants.” *** “That’s why I like you better,” Johnny laughed. “Okay. Cool. Arrange it with Iz or whatever.” As holiday plans went, Johnny was really in the habit of just going along with whatever Izzy felt like doing. For the whole time that they’d been together, there hadn’t really been anyone he’d been dying to be with. And now that Sue was here, too, he knew he could trust his girlfriend to include his sister in everything. She understood what having family around meant. “Oh. Hey. You know what, I’m glad you’re here. Maybe you can give me an idea for what the hell I should give her for Christmas.” Johnny was really struggling with that this year. *** “Are you looking for something different than weapons?” Clary asked. “Because that’s always a good bet. Especially when we have a dwarven smith in town.” Clary herself was braving sephora.com to buy some makeup for Isabelle. Although the makeup itself probably wouldn’t be ideal, given that Clary didn’t know a lot about makeup, she hoped Isabelle would appreciate the thought. And take advantage of the free returns. *** “Yeah, well. I’m thinking about shaking it up a little.” Weapons were a safe bet, and he knew that, which was why that was pretty much what he’d always gotten her over their about two and a half years together. It felt a lot like cheating to just keep doing it for every occasion. It was always something to fall back on, if he couldn’t get some better ideas out of people, but he figured Izzy would appreciate something different for a change. *** “You could give her something girly but practical,” Clary suggested, trying to think what might work. “Like a dress she could do parkour in. Or a perfume bottle that doubles as mace.” Where he'd find those, Clary had no idea. But Johnny was resourceful. She had faith in him. *** Did perfume that doubled as mace even exist? Johnny had no idea. But he also had the biggest science nerd he’d ever met as a sister, so he could ask her, and he bet that if she got into a lab she could invent it even if it didn’t exist. “Unique,” he mused, and grinned. “I like it. Thanks.” Whether it would work or not he had no idea, but it was a great idea. He was going to run with it. “What about you? Just pencils or something?” He was getting Clary something too, there wasn’t an option about it; but pretty much the only thing he knew about her was that she was an artist and training to be a kickass shadowhunter. Well, that and her crap taste in guys. *** “You can't go wrong with inventive weapons,” Clary said with a grin. Because perfume that doubled as mace definitely counted as that. When he asked about her present, she shrugged. “Gift certificate to Hinkle’s? I'll probably make more use of it than the pencils.” Her tone of voice suggested that wasn't her preferred situation. *** “No mojo?” Johnny guessed, hearing the tone and not sure what it actually meant. His best guess was what he had offered, that she just wasn’t feeling the drawing thing these days. Which had to suck. He couldn’t imagine just suddenly not liking the things he was good at. Johnny might not get to anymore, but he still loved and wanted to drive fast and ride bikes and jump off of mountains and everything like that. *** “No mojo,” Clary confirmed. She was obviously not happy about it. “I've been giving a few tries but it's been a thing since I started training as a Shadowhunter. It's like my brain can't handle doing both at once.” *** “Weird.” Johnny couldn’t relate at all. When he’d gotten super powers, he hadn’t lost himself like that. If anything, it had just given him another way to do what he loved. He didn’t need the tools anymore, could just jump off a building and fly himself, was maybe even a little more durable because of it. He doubted that he could go crashing down to earth from freaking space and survive it before. “Maybe you should be taking a break from training?” At least to find out if that was really what it was. Or find a balance or whatever people said about that kind of stuff. *** Clary shook her her head firmly. “Can’t do that. I’m already sixteen years behind everybody else. I can’t bail now. I did sign up for an art class though. Maybe that’ll give me the kick I need.” Clary wasn’t sure how that was going to go. She’d taken art classes a long time ago, but a lot of her art was self-taught, and she’d developed her own style that way. Even though she knew even great artists did classes every so often, it still felt like remedial school to her. *** “Let me know how it goes, I guess.” Johnny didn’t think she had any reason to have to try to catch up to everyone. He thought she was pretty badass already, but in the cool relatable way. And he thought it was dumb that she thought she had to train so hard that she sucked at something she liked. But he’d grown enough in the last couple of years that he just held his tongue about it. And she was probably going to get pencils or something for Christmas anyway. Because that was a good gift for someone who drew and Clary should draw. *** Clary gave him a wan smile. He was sweet for wanting to support her on getting back to drawing; she just hoped she would have some updates for him the next time they saw each other. “Yeah, sure.” She glanced at her phone. “Hey, I should get going, but let Isabelle know I was by?” *** “Sure.” He grinned easily and held up his fingers in a scout’s salute. “Promise.” He’d even make sure she called or something. Because he really did like Clary, and he was glad that Izzy had a friend like her. He was glad he had a friend like her. Who he could accidentally magically fall in love with and still talk to after. *** |