Sweet Creature ▹ Alec Lightwood [2] ( SLOW UPDATES )

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER TWELVE
A VERY MUNDANE NIGHT

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

     "To Adrian and Izzy!" Jace declared a few hours later, raising his champagne glass above his head. He was on top of a table in the library, where all of them had congregated the second they got home. Maryse had a bottle of champagne waiting, and the portal was open in the library. It seemed like every few minutes, another person came walking through, either a glass of alcohol in hand, something sweet, a pan of food, or a present. Adrian only recognized a few people, but that didn't matter; it was the occasion that people were celebrating. Parabatais were rare, and the community usually came together to celebrate whenever a ceremony was done. Adrian threw an arm around Isabelle and brought her closer, eyes zeroing in on Jace, who suddenly had the attention of everyone in the library. He barely noticed, eyes glued to Adrian and Isabelle, a grin tugging at his mouth. "If you two work really hard, maybe you'll reach mine and Alec's level someday." Adrian snorted, while Isabelle laughed, loud and bright.

"We could beat you two with our eyes closed," Isabelle declared, and laughter filtered around the room. Jace grinned wide and hopped down from the table, sloshing champagne onto the floor, not that he noticed. Alec mumbled something under his breath, and Adrian turned toward him, his free hand automatically reaching out to grab Alec's t-shirt. With a single tug, Alec was stumbling against Adrian's other side. Alec let out a startled laugh, and then his arm was looping around Adrian's waist. He was pressing a soft kiss against his cheek a second later.

"What do you think?" Adrian asked, a smile tugging at his lips as Alec's arm wrapped around his neck. Adrian could feel eyes on them, either disapproving or not, but he didn't care. No one could ruin that day for him. "Could Izzy and I beat you and Jace with our eyes closed?" Alec laughed and leaned forward to kiss him firmly on the mouth before stepping away.

"We could spar later and find out," Alec suggested. Almost immediately, Isabelle was at her brother's side, two glasses of champagne in her hands. She handed one to Adrian, then grinned and nudged Alec in the side with her elbow. She murmured something to Alec that Adrian couldn't hear, her smile so wide that Adrian knew she wasn't up to anything good, and he wasn't surprised when blood rushed to Alec's face. Adrian opened his mouth to ask Isabelle what he had said to make his boyfriend blush like that, wanting to make him even more flustered, but broke off when Jace suddenly crashed into him. Adrian grunted under his weight, then pretended to grumble like he wasn't enjoying the attention when Jace placed a loud, smacking kiss to his cheek.

"I can't wait to see how differently you two fight now that you're parabatai," Jace sighed, pressing his forehead briefly against Adrian's temple before pulling away. His grin was bright, his golden eyes shining, and Adrian thought this was best mood Jace had been in in a very long time. Adrian didn't know what was wrong with Jace, his apparent problems with Clary aside, but he was happy to see that it was gone. For the time being, at least. Adrian grinned back, returned his affection by squeezing his hand, then cast another look around the room. He caught sight of Robert kneeling down and ruffling Max's hair, who smiled happily before hugging him. Maryse wasn't even close to Robert, on the other side of the room, talking to Jia Penhallow as she held a glass of champagne. As if sensing Adrian's look, Maryse glanced over to look at him, and then she was breaking away from Jia and heading their way.

Maryse pressed a quick kiss to Adrian's hair, murmuring her congratulations as she pressed a small box into his hand, and then she was turning toward her daughter, giving her most of her focus. Isabelle's smile was wide and beaming when Maryse gathered her into a hug, and Adrian felt a small ache in his chest watching them. Swallowing the sudden lump in his throat, he quickly pocketed the present to open it later, then noticed Alec was gone. He cast a wild look around, wondering when his boyfriend had slipped away, and saw him by the wall, talking to Robert. Alec's back was to Adrian, so he couldn't see his face, but Robert's expression didn't seem alarming. He looked calm, if mildly uncomfortable. Adrian watched closely, looking for any sign that Alec wanted to get away. Adrian knew things had been tense between Alec and his parents ever since he'd come out, so he held his breath and waited for Robert to say the wrong thing.