Chapter Text
After Jace had finally gotten the last of the glitter off from Magnus’s final prank and Magnus had scampered off to harass Alec, Izzy cornered him in his room. He winced. All he could think about was seeing her and Lydia in flagrante, and he considered Izzy his sister to t he point where he was nothing but traumatized seeing her naked. “Look, I’m sorry you caught me and Lydia earlier,” Izzy said.
“What about chucking your stiletto at me?” Jace said. “I have a bruise on my arm!”
“Well, you should know better than not to knock.” Izzy sighed. “Jace, you can’t tell anyone. We’re just keeping it between us for right now.”
“Even Alec?”
“Especially Alec.” Izzy stressed. “Look, between Lydia stopping my trial and Alec kissing Magnus at the wedding, a lot of people around here really aren’t fans of her. It would just complicate things if people knew we were dating.”
“Iz. . .Are you sure this is a good idea?” Jace asked. Now that he had time to get over the horror of seeing Izzy naked and being covered in glitter, he’d been thinking more about Izzy and Lydia being together, and he wasn’t sure if was a great idea. “We don’t know anything about her, and she did almost have you convicted for treason.”
Izzy put her I’m not going to argue about this look. Even though they were completely different people, Izzy was clearly Maryse’s child. “We’ve made our peace with that—and that’s between me and her. Besides, she did the right thing in the end. And she pushed Alec towards Magnus when she could have kept him miserable for the rest of his life.”
“I just don’t know, Iz.”
Izzy sighed. “I know her. I trust her. And you’d feel the same if you’d spent any time with her!”
Jace frowned. Izzy was right; Alec and apparently Izzy had spent much more time with Lydia. Izzy thought she was good enough of a person to sleep with, and Alec liked her enough to marry her, even if it had been purely platonic. Jace really didn’t know her, although he had meant it when he’d thanked her letting Alec go at the wedding.
Jace thought about it. He spent time with Magnus, now, didn’t he? Granted, that had originally only started out of guilt because Magnus had saved his life, but now Jace genuinely liked hanging out with Magnus. And even better: it made Alec stupidly happy when Magnus and Jace spent time together.
So why he couldn’t do the same for Izzy with Lydia?
~
Lydia was happier than she had been in a long time. Which, wasn’t a high standard to be honest, between her fiancée dying, and tanking her career in front of the High Inquisitor, and then being left at the alter by her gay fiancé for another man. The same fiancé whose sister she was now sleeping with.
So, yeah. Low bar. But even if she’d been top of the world, Izzy would still make everything better.
Izzy was the most amazing person she’d ever met. She was generous, and brilliant, and so funny and gorgeous. She made Lydia feel bubbly almost, and Lydia hadn’t felt that way in a long, long time. It was sad to say that she’d jumped at Alec’s proposal because he was the first person she’d felt she could be friends with in years, but she wasn’t stupid enough to think it had been anything more than that. But Izzy made her feel alive, like anything was possible.
They’d both agreed it was best they keep their relationship a secret for the time being, but since Jace and Magnus had caught them together, it was only a matter of time until the rest of the Institute found out. And while Lydia didn’t want to deal with the stares and the whisperings about her motivations, the thought of being able to hold Izzy’s hand in public was nice.
"Hey Lydia!"
Lydia jumped as she turned the corner. Jace was standing there, and the only way to describe the smile on his face was, well, creepy. She’d been trying to avoid him and Magnus since they’d caught her and Izzy. But now he’d found her.
“Hey. . .Jace.” She said.
“Hey, I was going to go shopping for lady an anniversary present for Clary Saturday. You wanna come?” he asked.
“Um.” Lydia was unsure what to say. “Maybe you should ask Izzy? She knows Clary better than I do.”
“She’s busy,” Jace said dismissively.
Lydia knew for a fact she wasn’t.
“What about Simon?”
“I need someone to go with me during the day.”
“Magnus?” She asked desperately. Magnus and Jace were sort of buddies, right? And Magnus liked Clary?
“I really need a woman’s advice. Please, Lydia?”
Lydia was about to suggest Jocelyn, or Maryse, or the fucking Seelie Queen herself, when Jace gave her puppy dog eyes. Fuck. Even though she was sure she was walking into a trap, Lydia sighed. “Fine.”
Jace smiled, and Lydia resolved to bring a few extra knives, just in case.
~
Jace kept smiling at her every time they saw each other, and it was really starting to creep her out.
Lydia wasn’t stupid. She knew that when Clary had accused her of spying on Valentine, the accusations had come from Jace. She had thought that they were cool after their talk at the wedding, but Jace had been Valentine’s prisoner for months; she couldn’t blame him for any reignited suspicions, even if they weren’t true. Or maybe it was just the fact that she was involved with Izzy that had Jace’s hackles up. Lydia really and truly liked Izzy, but if she were Jace—well, Lydia would certainly think that she was with Izzy for a power grab after Alec hadn’t worked out.
Oh, well. It wasn’t the first time another Shadowhunter had tried to kill her, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. She just hoped that if she ended up putting Jace in the infirmary, it wouldn’t hurt her and Izzy’s budding relationship.
~
Jace was trying, he really was. He didn’t care for shopping much, but he’d always been game to tag along with Izzy or Clary or Magnus. It wasn’t fun, but he enjoyed watching people he cared about have fun.
Which Lydia clearly wasn’t.
The whole day, she looked as if someone had was poking a voodoo doll of her. Her brow was furrowed, and her shoulders were tense; Jace had seen her in battle more relaxed. He hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he needed help; he was helpless when it came to shopping, and he really wanted to get something nice for Clary.
The walked from store to store in awkward silence. No matter how much he tried to engage Lydia in conversation, she kept her answers short and to the point. The hours whittled away painfully slowly, and Jace finally gave up the ghost when he found himself considering dish towels. They walked back to the Institute in silence.
He put on a grin as they approached. “Well, today was a bust, but we can always hang out again and try later—“
“Oh my god!” Lydia shouted, whirling around to face him. “What is with you? If you’re going to try to kill me or whatever, can you just do it?”
Jace blinked. “What?”
“Look, Jace, I don’t know if this whole ruse was so you could give me the shovel talk about Izzy or just straight up get rid of me because you still think I’m a trader to Valentine or whatever, but can we stop pretending to be buddies and just get on with it?”
“Lydia. . .” Jace trailed off. Had they made her feel that much like an outsider? “It wasn’t a ruse. I just wanted to get to know you better.”
“What?” she sputtered.
Jace shrugged. “You’re dating my sister, you let yourself be humiliated for my brother. You’re important to them, so it seems like I should get to know you. Besides, I started hanging out with Magnus, and it turns out he’s a really cool dude. I thought you and I could do the same, just preferably without the crazy fighting for our lives bit.”
“Uh.” Lydia gaped. She opened her mouth and closed it again. “I just, after everything with Izzy and Alec, I thought you didn’t like me,” she finally said.
“I mean, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t your biggest fan in the beginning,” Jace said. “But Izzy seems to really like you, and she’s a good judge of character. Besides, when you pretty much shoved Alec towards Magnus, I started to change my mind.”
“I meant what I said. He deserved to be happy.”
“Yeah, well, I think he is, so. Thank you.” Jace paused. “You guys should tell him, you know. He’d be excited for you.”
“Tell Alec what?” Lydia asked.
“About you and Izzy.”
Lydia stared. “Jace. . .he knows.”
“What?”
“We told him pretty much right after you guys walked in on us. With you and Magnus knowing, it was only a matter of time before he found out, and besides, Izzy didn’t want to keep a secret from him.”
“Goddamn, Izzy,” he swore. Lydia raised an eyebrow. “She set us up! She told me I couldn’t tell Alec because it was top secret, and gave me this whole speech about how I’d really like you if I just got to know you.”
For the first time all night, Lydia smiled. “She’s good at keeping at secrets.”
“Much better than me and Alec.” Jace laughed. In the quiet, cold air, he felt close enough to Lydia to ask her something he’d always wondered. “You had to know he was gay, right? I mean, I’m pretty the Silent Brothers themselves knew.”
Lydia sighed. “I knew. That’s why I thought it would work.”
“Uh.” Jace stared. “You know people who get married both usually like each other, right? Like, sexually?”
She swallowed, looking down. “I’m gay too,” she said quietly.
Jace blinked, completely bewildered. He wasn’t sure if he’d heard right. “But. . .you were engaged before. . .”
“To Johnna.” Lydia wrapped her arms around herself. She suddenly looked very small. “She was always pretty butch. . .so she just pretended to be a man in public so we could be together. She changed her name, and we made sure to avoid anyone that knew her as a kid. I know better than anyone how homophobic Shadowhunter society can be, so I thought if Alec really wanted to be in the closet, I could be his beard. I didn’t think I would ever fall in love again after Johnna died, and I knew if I married Alec I would never have to force myself to have awkward sex with a man.”
“Lydia. . .” Jace said quietly. “Does Alec know?”
She shook her head. “You are the third person in my life that I’ve told. Alec and I were both on the same page that it was going to be a marriage of convenience, nothing more. He knew how heartbroken I still was from Johnna’s death; I just never told him that detail. Izzy knows,” she said.
“Wow. You are way more of a rule breaker than I thought.” Jace swallowed. “Thank you for trusting me with that.”
She nodded. “I’m sorry that I was such a bitch earlier. It’s been a long time since I’ve had people that care about me. I’ve forgotten how to trust people.”
“Hey, I get it.” Jace knew how scary it could be, to let people get close to you. “But I meant what I said at the wedding. This is your home, if you want it.”
She smiled, finally looking back up at him. “Thanks, Jace.”
Jace nodded, not pointing out the tears in her eyes. “So, now that you and I are cool, maybe we can do something with Magnus? He and I go shopping sometimes; dude has really good taste.”
Lydia laughed. “Sounds good. I think you might want to get Clary something other than a pot holder.”
He laughed back as they walked into the Institute. “I don’t know, those dish towels were pretty nice. . .”