Inside of Me ━ Isabelle Lightwood

XIV. LITTLE TALKS

Isaac couldn't be around Clary anymore. Not at the moment, not after she learned that she had two brothers that Valentine had taken from her. She went to him afterwards, after realizing where the Cup was, and she cried to him, but Isaac couldn't do anything. He couldn't bring himself to comfort her now that she was one step closer to realizing their sibling bond.

And Alec couldn't stay either. He had to return to the Institute because of his family, withhold his family's honor, and offered to take Isaac with him.

The two didn't get along, that was for sure, but both of them needed to run away from someone, and they didn't have a lot of options of where to go. Neither of them wanted to abandon family – Isaac for the second time.

"Why do you want to go to the Institute?" Alec asked as they walked the streets of Brooklyn, "I thought you hated the place."

"I do," Isaac nodded, "but I need to get away from everything in Magnus' lair for a while."

"Like Clary?" Alec asked, squinting as he looked up at the sun for a moment, his hands still tightly gripped around his quiver.

"Yeah," he answered, "I love the girl...but sometimes, I just need a little break from sometimes."

Alec nodded. "She annoys me sometimes as well."

Isaac chuckled at that, "She doesn't annoy me, not really, it's just that something happened recently that I can't tell her about. I can...I'm just scared to. Avoiding her is easiest right now."

Alec nodded again. They said nothing else as they went back to the Institute, and Isaac felt grateful for that. He didn't feel like having a conversation with someone who wouldn't understand him. Alec didn't know what it was like to keep a secret from his sister who didn't even know they were related.

Soon, they found themselves at the entrance of the Institute, walking in without a problem as they saw Isabelle working. She smirked when she saw them, or more at Alec.

"Slept at Magnus' place?" she questioned the two, giving an extra smile to Isaac.

When Isaac first saw her, he noticed that she looked very different. Instead of wearing a sexual outfit, she was in a more professional dress with her hair pulled back and makeup less intense. She looked more like her mother than she did Isabelle. And Isaac didn't like it.

"Didn't do much sleeping," Alec continued walking before hearing what he said, "I was helping treat Luke's wounds. That's all."

"Really?" Isabelle smirked, and Isaac tried not to chuckle at his stuttering throughout the explanation.

"What?" Alec asked her.

Isabelle sighed, hoping that Alec would catch on, "Nothing. I believe you."

Alec contemplated what he was going to say, "Okay, Magnus made cocktails. I'm telling you, nothing else happened."

"When you're ready to talk about whatever you need to talk about, I'm here," Isabelle told him.

"Hey, I talk to you," Alec defended himself, stiffening slightly.

"About everything but your personal life," Isabelle said, "You know, and it's kind of not fair, because I talk to you about mine all the time. For example, I broke you with Meliorn."

"Really? Turning over a new leaf?" Alec asked, a hint of surprise in his tone. Isaac was surprised as well, the Isabelle he knew would never do that. Though, she didn't look like the normal Isabelle.