Work Text:
Clary made her way into the bar and through the crowd and took a seat at the counter. She felt utterly relieved when she finally took off her cameo jacket and folded it roughly before placing it on her lap. After a day like that, Clary would just normally be heading home after class, but Simon had told her about this new bar where he was supposed to play the week after. Exams were coming to an end. She was desperate for a little break and a little fun so she figured she wouldn’t bother to wait until Simon’s gig.
Her face hidden in her clammy hands, she had the unpleasant feeling of having a few locks of hair plastered to the back of her neck so much she was sweating. She sat up straight on the wobbly stool, sighed and scrubbed her eyes, gathering some courage to order a drink. She didn’t drink alcohol, or very little, and seeing all these bottles lining up on the shelves behind the bar made her feel a bit nauseous. Maybe she’d just settle with a light beer and call it a day.
As she looked up to call the bartender, a voice caught her attention. A tall, blond girl was standing next to her, an elbow propped up on the counter, smiling. Clary forced her lips into a crooked smile, nodding awkwardly to the music in a poor attempt to avoid any kind of interaction.
“Are you here alone?” The girl asked, leaning closer for Clary to hear her over the music and chatter. She nodded, not particularly eager to keep this conversation going but trying to remain as polite as possible.
“I just saw you walk in and I thought you looked cute,” The blond woman said and Clary’s eyes darted back to the girl. “Can I buy you a drink?”
She suddenly felt her cheeks turn red as she choked on her saliva, this time truly startled. This was far more serious than what she had ever experienced with women before.
In fact, since she was 16 she had stuck to watching cute girls pass by in the streets of Brooklyn, and would stop and sit in the middle of Central Park just to draw some of them. She once smiled at the waitress from Java Jones. But that was it. She had never got to the flirting part before.
The girl was still standing there, waiting for an answer that Clary couldn’t give her anyway because she seemed to have lost the ability to speak. Instead, she stammered something and the blonde girl looked at her and frowned, confused.
“Are you straight?”
-x-
“Izzy!” Alec called from the other side of the bar, and Isabelle glanced over her shoulder while filling two glasses of beer.
“Yeah, coming.” She said, raising her voice for him to hear over the crowd. He had already asked three times for these but she had been busy taking orders at the counter. Friday nights were always crazy at Pandemonium, but it had never been a problem before. Izzy loved that bar, and she loved working with her brother, if only he would just try to relax sometimes.
She made her way to her brother and placed the beers on his tray, smiling brightly.
“Here,” She sighed, and Alec looked down at the two glasses frowning.
“No one’s ordered these,” He said, half-apologetically. “That was ten minutes ago and -”
“Shit, did I get mixed up with the orders again?”
“No, but -” Alec tilted his head towards the blonde woman sitting at the other end of the counter. “Charlie’s hitting on a newbie again.”
Isabelle only briefly glanced at the girl in question, knowing perfectly who she was. She raised an eyebrow at him.
“Well,” She finally said, her voice airy and detached. “I’m sure the little girl is actually a big girl and can handle herself Alec. We’re not babysitters.”
He scoffed, and his eyes fell back on Charlie and the newbie, and thought she was beginning to look a lot like an agonizing fish out of the water.
“If you say so…” Alec smiled crookedly at his sister then placed the beers back on the counter. He picked up his tray and disappeared into the crowd again, a pencil behind his ear, ready to take new orders.
-x-
Izzy had been drying the same glass for what had appeared to be an eternity when she managed to tear her eyes off Charlie and the ginger girl. Things had begun to settle down in the bar and she could almost hear what the two women were saying. The girl was looking like she was having a meltdown. When Charlie touched her hand that was resting on the counter, she nervously jerked it away, and Isabelle decided that was it and went to her rescue. She threw her dishtowel on her right shoulder and made her way to the other end of the bar, removing the pin that was holding her hair up so the black curls cascaded in her back.
“Hi babe,” she said, leaning nonchalantly over the edge of the counter. “I didn’t know you were here !”
Both Charlie and the ginger girl looked at her, startled but she smiled intently at the newbie and could read the confusion in her eyes, until -
“Yeah, I got here half an hour ago, but things were so crazy…” she played along, and Isabelle’s smile grew wider as she tilted her head like a curious cat. The girl looked down to Izzy’s waist and finally noticed that she was standing on the other side of the bar and therefore she worked here.
“I figured I’d let you work.” She added.
The girl was actually very pretty now that Isabelle saw her from close up. Not the kind of pretty girls she usually meets at Pandemonium, no. Something about her was different. She couldn’t be more than eighteen (as Izzy was herself), and her ginger hair fell perfectly around her face and down on her shoulders. If you looked closely you would notice she had chalk dirt on some of her curls and maybe even a little bit on her cheek.
She had beautiful green eyes that glowed a little with the neon lights of the bar. They were wide and genuine and looked at Isabelle as if they could see right through her, and while it was kind of new and unsettling, the bartender also found it intriguing. She was the kind of girl who was pretty and didn’t even know it, with her plain white shirt and chalk in her hair like she had been drawing all day with every inch of her body and soul.
She was this kind of pretty girl.
Charlie’s eyes were darting from Isabelle to Clary and back to Isabelle. She looked truly annoyed when Izzy briefly glanced at her. She turned back to Clary, grinning proudly.
“I’m sorry Charlotte,” she said to the blond girl, trying to sound as serious as possible when she only wanted to burst out laughing. She cleared her throat. “Did you want something?”
Charlie shook her head so fast it almost made Clary dizzy. She got up and left the bar, under Clary’s gaze. She followed her with her eyes until she disappeared in the street and then heard the bartender laugh. She stared at her in surprise and when Isabelle looked up and met her eyes she closed her mouth in a snap.
“My shift ends in half an hour so if you want to wait for me…” Izzy said with a side-smile.
Something in her eyes twinkled before she turned around and went back to work. Did she wink at Clary?
-x-
Clary waited thrity more minutes in the almost empty bar. She didn’t know why, she didn’t have anything to do or drink, neither did she have anyone to chat with. Charlie was keen and made her uncomfortable, but at least with her she didn’t look so alone and desperate on a Friday night. She passed the time however, watching the bartender work. The girl was beautiful, the kind of girl Clary would have liked to draw.
She moved around gracefully, her long black hair floating behind her as she made her way back and forth from one end of the counter to the other. She remembered her eyes as she saw them. She had deep black eyes that glinted when she smiled. Eyes were Clary’s favorite thing to draw in a girl, for a girl’s eyes were never just blue or brown or green. They were the color of the sky or the color of the sea, they were ebony or hazel and they told stories like lips would never be able to tell. Clary wondered what were the stories her eyes told. She wondered if they spoke of adventures like her drawings did. Maybe not all eyes can talk. Maybe Clary’s eyes don’t and instead, her hands seem to be doing the work.
“We’re closing folks !” The bartender shouted and Clary started, cut off in her thoughts. She glanced around nervously and finally moved to grab her bag and drawing folder. She was heading for the door, when she heard a voice in her back.
“Hey newbie -” It was the bartender. She stopped and whirled around ; from that distance she looked rather serious but then Clary wasn’t so sure, maybe she was trying to suppress a smile.
“I meant it,” she added. “Wait for me.”
-x-
Clary sat at a table and waited ten more minutes before Isabelle came to her, a beer in each hand. She sat across from her and turned to the waiter who was carrying his jacket in his hand, and Clary thought he’d better put it on because summer nights are a bit chill these days.
“I’ll meet you at the loft, big bro.”
The guy frowned as he tilted his head to see the ginger girl Charlie was trying to flirt with, then shrugged before he walked out of the bar.
Isabelle’s eyes met with Clary’s and her smile got softer. She looked down at the girl’s hands ; they had, just like her hair, chalk dust here and there. She glanced back up. Those green eyes were staring at her as if studying her and Izzy felt - for the first time in a long time - awfully exposed. She sighed.
“You know this is a gay bar, right?” She asked and an eyebrow shot up.
Clary froze and leaned back in her chair, dropping her hands on her lap. She made a face, shrugged, and tilted her head.
“Yeaaah…” She scoffed and when she looked back up at Isabelle she saw she was trying really hard not to laugh.“No.” She admitted meekly.
Silence settled as Clary glanced down at her hands and felt her cheeks turn red. Nobody wanted to speak after that, until they both bursted out laughing at the same time. Clary tried to dry her eyes as laughing so much had made her tear up.
“My friend Simon told me about the place - he’s playing here in a few days.” She said, still not sure she won’t start giggling again soon.
“Tall guy, glasses, Jewish?”
Clary nodded with a smile at the thought of Simon making it clear to everyone he met that he was in a band and that he was Jewish. In that order.
“I’m Isabelle,” The bartender said and Clary looked up, her green eyes wide open and Isabelle couldn’t help but notice a hint of a smile crossing the newbie’s lips. She smiled brightly herself as she propped her chin in the palm of her hand.
The ginger girl nodded a few times, looking down and trying to suppress her grin. “Clary.”
She finally said and her eyes fluttered. Izzy took a sip of her beer, not taking her eyes off the girl. Clary was a beautiful name.