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“Where are you going?” Isabelle asks him. Raphael stopped by the Institute just long enough to confirm that Lily will be taking over the clan in his place now and to make sure they knew if they reached out to him he would not be answering. In the short period of time he’s been human again, Lily, the clan, Magnus, and several Shadowhunters have all tried to come to him for something or another, and right now he needs to distance himself from that.
The last time he had to get out of the city he went to spend some time in Detroit, working in a soup kitchen there, so it seems like the most reasonable place to go this time around.
“Maybe Detroit again? It’ll be nice to start somewhere familiar, I think,” he admits. Something about Isabelle has always made her feel so easy for him to talk to - perhaps it’s their recent shared history, the vulnerability that was at its core, but of all the Nephilim she’s the one he trusts the most.
She’s also the one he’s going to miss the most… or so he thinks.
---
Raphael is only in Detroit for a matter of days before he sees Isabelle lingering by the entrance towards the end of his shift. He acknowledges her arrival with a smile, and she hangs back by the door until he’s done wrapping things up.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” he says. “Is everything okay?” He can’t imagine what could be wrong that would require his notification at this point, but he also doesn’t know why else she’d be here.
“I don’t know, is it?” Isabelle counters. “I came to check in, make sure you were doing alright.”
“You could’ve just called,” Raphael points out.
“I could’ve,” Isabelle agrees, but leaves it there. She could’ve, but she wanted to see him in person. She wanted to make sure he wouldn’t just lie on the phone. She cares enough to do that, even now. Even when he did his best when he left to make the idea of reaching out to him sound like the last thing anyone should want to do.
“Are you hungry? I haven’t quite mastered cooking for one and have enough leftovers in my apartment to feed a small army,” Raphael offers.
Isabelle smiles. “I’d love that, thanks.”
He’s doing fine, but he’s already feeling much better now that she’s here.
---
Isabelle can only stay for a few hours, but it’s nice to see her again so soon, especially when he hadn’t been sure when the next time he’d see anyone he knew again would be.
Raphael decides he doesn’t want to stay here much longer, already feeling a bit restless. This was a place he came to hide before, and that isn’t what he’s doing now. It feels wrong. Instead, Raphael makes arrangements to spend some time in Los Angeles and talks with Magnus about possibly traveling the world a bit now that he can properly appreciate the cities he only knew by moonlight before.
He’s in LA for a full week before Isabelle arrives, tracking him down to a local church where he’s volunteering to do grounds work for a little while.
“I’m starting to think you don’t trust me,” he says, and smiles when Isabelle laughs.
“My father needed some help at the Institute here,” she says. “So I volunteered.”
She doesn’t say if his presence here had any influence on that decision, and he doesn’t ask.
They spend almost all of her free time together, with Isabelle showing him some local favorites that usually fall under the tourist recommendation radar and Raphael enjoying her company much more than he anticipated, considering he planned on being alone during his travels. He’s quickly learning that there’s a difference between choosing to be alone and wanting to be alone, one he didn’t think about so much when he had centuries ahead of him.
He enjoys the company while it lasts, considering his next stop is out of the country and he imagines it’s the last he’ll see of her until he decides to return to New York.
---
He’s wrong about that as well. When Isabelle turns up in Buenos Aires Raphael decides he should stop being surprised to see her.
“What?” She says innocently. “You’re not the only one who gets to travel, you know. We have Institutes all over the world, I could be of use at any one of them.”
In Berlin, he’s actively looking out for her. If she realizes he’s intentionally choosing destinations with local Institutes now she doesn’t call him out on it. He wonders if she brought it up in Buenos Aires as a hint or a subtle suggestion, hoping he’d catch on.
They eat, drink, and dance. They stay in and watch local television in languages Raphael doesn’t know, with the subtitles on so he can learn. They walk around foreign cities and visit landmarks and Raphael even agrees to a few selfies, at Isabelle’s insistence.
It isn’t all vacation for Isabelle, who does have a job to do at whatever Institute she’s moved herself to in order to be with him, but whenever she isn’t on duty her free time is spent with him. After Berlin she starts staying with him in the apartments Magnus arranges for him in each city he travels to - there’s always plenty of space and multiple bedrooms, but they share anyway. Always just to sleep, Isabelle never expects or asks for anything more.
Every new place he moves, Isabelle Lightwood isn’t far behind. Raphael waits for her to get tired of him and leave, waits for the time he moves somewhere new and she doesn’t follow, but it never happens.
One night, three days into their time together in Melbourne, he asks why she decided to travel with him all this time.
“When you left, you said you wanted something familiar. I get wanting to leave a place behind, to get some distance from the memories of it. But that doesn’t mean you have to leave everyone behind, too. I thought you might like the company and a friendly, familiar face. Figured I’d keep checking in until you told me to leave...”
Raphael laughs lightly. “Except I never did.” He’s still surprised that, as much as she never grew tired of him, he never grew tired of her, either. He still hasn’t, in fact, and would be more upset than he’d ever admit if she decided to end whatever this unspoken arrangement between them is.
“Nope,” Izzy confirms, popping the ‘p’ at the end of the word for emphasis. “I’m glad you didn’t, for the record. I like being with you, and I’m glad we got another chance at it. However long it lasts.”
“Me too,” Raphael agrees. “Me too.”