Work Text:
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Clary hissed as she followed Simon up the walk. The Lightwood house loomed tall and forbidding under a canopy of leafless trees, and there was enough of a bite in the air that she really wished she’d remembered her gloves. She stuffed her cold fingers in the pockets of her coat and glared at the back of Simon’s head.
“Relax, Fray.” He turned back toward her with a quick grin. “It’s gonna be awesome.”
“Right, hanging around with a bunch of guys in some smelly basement playing pretend, sounds awesome. Also, what’s with the Doritos?”
Simon hefted the enormous bag with an ominous crunching noise. “It’s a traditional offering. Besides, it’s not a smelly basement, it’s a really nice game room. You know the Lightwoods are, like, loaded, right? And you’re not going to be the only girl there.”
“All I know about them is that Alec Lightwood hates my guts.”
“Alec hates everybody, it’s not personal.”
“If he kicks me out, you’re giving me a ride home.”
“Of course I will,” Simon said, sounding offended. “But he’s not going to kick you out. He’s cool. Once you get to know him.”
“Right,” Clary said, injecting every ounce of sarcasm she could manage into her voice. Then she added, “Wait, who are the other girls who are going to be there?”
“Uh. Well, there’s Maia Roberts, and—”
“Oh, okay, this whole D&D kick you’ve been on suddenly makes so much sense.”
“And,” Simon added loudly, his ears going red in a way that she was pretty sure had nothing at all to do with the cold, “Alec’s sister. Isabelle. She’s our age.”
“I didn’t know Alec had a sister.”
“Yeah, she went to elementary school with me. I guess she’s in some gifted program upstate--she’s like, a genius, apparently. She’s home for break.”
“A rich genius,” Clary said, eyeing the ostentatious facade as they came up the steps. “I bet she’s loads of fun.”
“Don’t be so cynical,” Simon said cheerfully, and lifted his hand to rap on the door. There was a clatter of footsteps on the other side, and then the door swung open.
On the other side of it was the most beautiful girl Clary had ever seen in her life. She was small and curvy and wearing a dress that was both way too short for the weather and also amazing, and loose coils of dark hair framed a face that belonged in a painting, and—
She realized, belatedly, that she was staring like an idiot, mouth half open. She blushed, pulled her hand out of her pocket, and stuck it out. “Uh. Hi. You must be Isabelle. I’m Clary, and this is, uh—”
“Simon,” the girl said, her mouth curving up into a smile as she took Clary’s hand in both of hers. Her palms were warm and soft, her nails manicured. “Hi.”
“Hey Izzy, nice to see you,” Simon said, breezing by her, chip bag still clutched in both hands. “Is Maia here?”
“Downstairs,” the girl--Izzy--said, grinning. She still hadn’t let go of Clary’s hand, and there was an icy breeze coming in through the open door but that suddenly didn’t seem to matter in the slightest.
“Right, cool, awesome.” Simon looked between them, gave Clary the world’s most unsubtle wink, then scampered down the stairs behind them. Flushing, she dropped Izzy’s hands.
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Izzy said, slipping around her in a breath of sweet perfume to push the door shut. “Are you here for the game?”
“Uh, yeah? I mean, I guess?”
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” said another voice, and Alec Lightwood stepped into the foyer, arms folded, brows drawn into a scowl. The dark good looks that were so magnetic on Isabelle just seemed to add to his general air of intimidating hostility, which was barely muted by the fact that he was wearing a Naruto t-shirt, probably unironically. “We have another player? You guys know I spent a week writing this quest for four players, right?”
“I--sorry,” Clary said, wincing. Damn it, Simon. “I can go. I don’t want to be a hassle.”
“Two more players,” Izzy interjected, lifting her chin.
Alec stared at her. “I thought you said you weren’t going to play tonight.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Great,” Alec grumbled. He glanced between them, rolled his eyes, and turned away to start stomping down the stairs toward the basement room Simon had just disappeared into. “I’ll just rewrite the whole quest then, it’s fine.”
“Thank you,” Izzy called after him.
“You owe me!”
“I’ll take it out of your tab!” Izzy shook her head and smiled at Clary. “Ignore him. He’s just mad that his boyfriend is stuck at college for the break and he’s taking it out on everyone else. Have you ever played D&D before?”
“Uh, no,” Clary managed. “I don’t even really know how it works.”
“Come on,” Izzy said, holding out a hand. “Let me grab my dice, and I’ll show you how to roll up a character.”
That sounded more or less like word salad to her, but Izzy’s hand was warm and she smelled so good that Clary was pretty sure that right then she would have followed her anywhere.