Brothers and Sisters

Groceries

Clarissa Fairchild quickly walked through the narrow aisles of the grocery store closest to the Institute.

The quartet had returned from a hard day's work, covered in ichor, to find the Institute empty. Clary's mother and Luke had taken the weekend to pay a visit to Luke's sister in the country, and the Lightwood elders had been summoned to Idris suddenly that morning.

As well as returning to find the Institute empty of people, they had also returned to find it empty of food too. They had managed to find a couple of mushrooms, a stem of broccoli and some cooked pasta in the fridge, which Izzy wanted to cook. Of course, Jace would never let that happen, and that was how Clary and Alec found themselves in the small grocery store a couple of hundred metres away from the Institute.

They had walked around for a few minutes in comfortable silence, placing things in the shopping cart as they walked around the small store.

"Have you heard from your mom and dad?" Clary asked Alec absentmindedly, as she picked a packet of bell peppers out of a basket. They had decided that a stir fry would be good for dinner, something easy after a long day of chasing demons around New York City.

"Yeah, there was a message in my office when we got back. They said they would be in Idris longer than they thought, they're going to be coming back on Saturday instead of Wednesday." Clary nodded, continuing to push the cart as Alec reached to take two packets of rice noodles from a high shelf.

"So, you won't be there when they get back? I heard that you and Magnus are taking a trip to Tokyo this weekend?" Clary stated rather than asked, almost everyone knew about the trip the coming weekend.

"I guess Izzy will have to handle our mother all on her own." Alec smirked.

"Now that's something that will entertain us over the weekend." Clary joked, making Alec laugh.

The pair stopped in front of the large selection of oriental sauces that the grocery store stocked, and Clary reached up to reach a bottle from the very top shelf.

Unfortunately, even standing on her toes, Clary was unable to reach said bottle.

Much to her dismay, Alec noticed and was standing behind her hiding his smirk behind his hand.

"Alec, would you just..." Clary rolled her eyes, returning to stand on the balls of her feet.

"Would I just... what?" Alec looked around, pretending to be oblivious to Clary's problem.

"Alec, you know I can't reach it." Clary huffed, damning her height for the umpteenth time.

"You can't what?" Alec used his left hand to cup his ear.

"Alec." Clary sighed, watching the uncommon smile work its way onto Alec's face.

"What?"

"Alec, will you just..." Alec smirked, reaching for the bottle Clary was pointing at with ease, making her roll her eyes.

"Next time I'm bringing Izzy." Clary said under her breath as they walked to the checkout together.

"Clary, we're in a grocery store. Have you seen Izzy's cooking? Nine times out of ten she wouldn't notice her own hand in front of her face in here, she would have no clue." Alec commented, making the redhead laugh.

For some reason, Clary couldn't help but agree with the arrow-wielding Shadowhunter.