Ugly Duckling ¤ Will Herondale

Tag

"So, whatever did compell you to fake a courtship with Zelie?" Jem asked Will teasingly as they hung around the gardens of the Yorkshire institute waiting for the girls to finish getting changed for diner. They were strolling through rose bushes, the scent was infiltrating and overly sweet, it made Will's head light and he wanted to burn them up. He thought of roses as overrated. What was so special about them anyways?

"What?" Will asked snapping himself out of his internal rose rant.

"Why'd you do it Will?" Jem asked fighting to keep the smile off his face, as he usually did when he was around his parabati.

Will rolled his eyes. "Her big mouth and her were going to ruin the mission! The institute and Charlotte's job depends on us finding something out here. I'll be damned if the idiotic Lightwoods take possession. I bet they don't even know Wales' anthem."

"They're not Welsh." Jem argued.

Will smirked triumphantly. "My point exactly, James."

Jem shook his head a smile forming on his lips. "Well, at least you guys are a fair couple."

"First off, we aren't a couple. Second, we're such a gorgeous couple it's painful to look at us." Will stated arrogantly, and Jem rolled his silver eyes good naturedly because it was true. It shouldn't be fair for two people to be that good looking. Much less for them to be together.

Jem then grinned widely and Will realized what he just said. "You just called Zelie Archfeild, your sworn enemy, gorgeous."

Will scoffed trying to play off his mistake. "No my company makes her gorgeous." Will looked around trying to dig himself out of the ditch he created. His eyes landed on the prettiest velvet red rose in the garden. He strode up to it and plucked it off. "See, she's like this rose. Pretty yes, but full of thorns and at the end she isn't worth the splinters." Will knew his analogy didn't make sence but Jem never quite looked into details. So, perhaps he had gotten away with it.

"Don't compare Zelie to a rose. We both know she represents much more than just love and beauty." Yes, in fact she didn't represent love at all. She wasn't exactly known for having any sort of emotions besides annoyence and amusment, which were polar opposites.

"Okay, so perhaps she's more of a gladious." Will waved him off.

"Who is?" A cheerful yet slurty voice asked from behind them. Both Will and Jem jumped in surprise.

"Zelie?" Jem asked in shock. How had they not heard her?

"How much did you hear?" Will asked just as surprised.

"It's not polite to sneak up on people." Jem told Zelie but he couldn't hide the smile on his face because Zelie was and had always been childish and inpolite.

Zelie smiled teasingly at him turning her body more towards Jem. "I wasn't sneaking up on you, you two were just so entertained by your conversation about flowers that you didn't notice me. You know Will, you never did strike me as a florist." Zelie teased poking at Will's "masculinity" to get under his skin, but before she could continue her child like nature got the better of her. She ran and began to spin grinning widely. She hardly ever had room outdoors seeing as the big city was always so full. Now that she was surrounded by hills and lakes and gardens she couldn't stop herself from playing in them. She threw her hands up in the air. "I love the country side." She exclaimed and Jem laughed as Will rolled his eyes. Then she stopped and ran up to them. The excitement in her eyes becoming almost comical. "Let's play tag." She suggested excitedly looking like she was about to begin jumping up and down.

Jem hesitated because of his condition, he tried not to over due himself when it wasn't necessary but then made up his mind. Zelie never treated him any different just because of his disease and she made him feel like he was normal. He shrugged. "Why not we've been stuck on a train the whole day. We have ought to stretch our legs."