darkness is our playground we call home.

(I hope this was an okay start)

Jace couldn’t remember a time in his life where he had been this happy, of course he had been happy in the past, but that day was different. His happiness stemmed from one thing, one person in fact, Kaycee Latton had returned to New York. The brunette beauty had finally returned home, something Jace had been tirelessly waiting for. Jace only cared for a few select people, it was a way of keeping in control and limiting the damage that his heart and soul could go through if anything were to happen to the people he loved. He had gone through enough pain when he lost his father, he never wanted to go through that pain again. Which is why his circle of friends was limited and stayed that way for that exact reason. Also, because he found it hard to trust anyone he hadn’t grown up with.

The day had been spent catching up with Kaycee, they had all missed her. Alec, Isabelle and Josee, although they allowed Josee to have the most time with Kaycee. Jace couldn’t imagine what the girls had felt, it was something he never wanted to find out. He couldn’t bare the thought of not being near Alec for any length of time, parabatai’s aren’t meant to be apart but Kaycee had gone to Idris while Josee stayed back in New York.

Although, it wasn’t long before a mission was handed over to the group of friends. They were to find out who was draining blood from mundane’s and dealing it, grabbing their weapons they headed out into the night to track a demon’s every step. “Just like old times,” He grinned as he glanced over to Kaycee as they followed a shape shifter along a busy street of the city, he was glad to have her back where she belonged. A slight breeze picked up strands of her dark rich locks and tossed them over her shoulders, she had always been beautiful to Jace. Every time he tried to tell her that, or tell her how he felt, the words got stuck in his throat. He was terrified of telling her, having her reject him or worst, if something happened to her and he couldn’t protect her, save her.

---

Everything was right in Josee’s life, her best friend had returned home, the part of her that had felt lost was finally whole again. She had wanted to spend more time with Kaycee, she would have if a mission had been given to them. She knew there was plenty of time to chat with Kaycee, right now someone was killing innocent mundanes and draining their bodies of blood. They were tasked with finding out who wanted the blood so badly, her boots hit the ground as she walked beside Alec, Izzy was close by, you could tell by the sound of her heels.

Her blonde hair had been pushed up into a ponytail, causing her hair to swing from side to side as she walked. Following a demon that they had been tracking, the street was busy although no one slowed them down. No one could see them, no one could hear them, it made everything so much easier that way. She couldn’t help but smile when she saw Kaycee and Jace walking together, they were still so blind after all this time. But Kaycee had decided to not listen to her, every time she told her friend how Jace felt about her.

However, that wasn’t something she thought of for long. Because as she walked passed a van, her eyes were drawn to a guy. A somewhat of a geeky guy, but she could have sworn that he looked straight at her. Not through her like most did, no, it was like he had seen her which only meant one thing. Something was wrong, he shouldn’t have been able to see her. “Jos, come on.” Alec’s voice brought her back to reality as he headed down an alley between the buildings, Josee followed closely behind as they wanted to surround the demon and find out what she knew.

(It’s perfect, as always!)

If there was one thing Kaycee had been looking forward to for a long time was returning to the New York Institute. Idris had been great, of course, but being separated from Josee had been borderline painful. She’d wanted nothing more than to come home and be near her parabatai again to end that lonely, empty feeling that filled her while she’d been in Idris. Really, she probably shouldn’t have left the Institute in the first place, but she’d been requested and she couldn’t really say no with that. It would have looked bad and that was the last thing she wanted when she’d been trying so hard to make good impressions.

While she’d been gone, though, Josee hadn’t been the only person she’d missed. Of course, she’d missed Izzy and Alec as well, but she’d missed Jace almost as much as she’d missed Josee. Being away from him and going through the days without seeing him had been painful in its own way and she knew why, but it was hard to admit it to herself. Josee knew, of course she did - Kaycee couldn’t hide it from her best friend, from her parabatai. And, Kaycee was pretty sure that Izzy had been pretty aware of it, too, since Izzy had always been perceptive of people. But, Kaycee wasn’t sure she wanted Jace to ever know, not when it could change things between them.

Blinking out of her thoughts when she heard Jace, she grinned over at him. “What? Did you expect that to change?” she joked lightly, but she focused on the task at hand, following the shapeshifter, making sure to keep track of it each time it changed to a new form. They couldn’t lose it. Really, it was nice to be back in the hunt - she didn’t get to do much of this in Idris, it was all meetings and talk. She’d missed being able to actually do something and save people, protect people. She paused when she heard Alec call for Josee, though, and she peered back at her parabatai. “You okay?” she asked quietly.

---

Simon was hanging out at his makeshift band’s van, mostly loading things up in it from the gig they’d just ended. It’d been fun and exciting, especially since it had been their first gig and he was hoping for and looking forward to many more in the future, if they got the chance. They’d changed their band name so often, though, that he was partly concerned that it’d make it hard for people to really keep up with them. Of course, he usually tried not to think or worry about things like that, since he didn’t like being pessimistic - he preferred to look forward to everything as it came and to be hopeful that everything would be okay. It made it easier to really deal with life in general, in his opinion.

He was about to open his mouth to talk to his bandmate and friend, Maureen, but his attention was caught by a gorgeous blonde he saw walking past. She was dressed in all black and that made her blonde hair stand out all the more and he watched her, unable to help himself, taking her in. Her gaze had locked on his and, really, he’d lost himself in that simple eye contact, making a decision then and there that he had to know her, that he had to talk to her. Before he could call out or grin and approach her, though, he saw her attention get dragged somewhere else and she’d been heading into an alleyway not long after that. He’d seen a guy go in there right before her and a part of him wondered if that was her boyfriend, which admittedly disheartened him.

But, he couldn’t let go of that desire to know the girl or to at least talk to her and he began following after her without hesitation, hearing Maureen call out to him, “Hey! Simon! Hey?” Whether she followed him or not, Simon didn’t know and he didn’t really care, surprisingly. All he cared about was seeing that girl again, talking to her, getting her attention, learning about her. It was like there was something in him begging him to pay attention to the part of him that wanted to make some sort of connection, the part of him that wanted to be brave and approach this gorgeous blonde.

Jace grinned as he raised his brow and looked at Kaycee, “I wasn’t sure. I mean you could have lost your touch while you were away, being requested and all.” He teased her, he knew full well that a Shadowhunter didn’t just lose the years of training they received growing up. But, if he could tease Kaycee about anything, then he would because he loved seeing her smile. When she smiled, her dark eyes glowed with happiness and that is all he wanted to see. To see her happy, and if she was happy because of him, that was the single best thing for Jace. They had always teased each other, ever since they were young children, it was just their thing.

The day Kaycee left to Idris, he had almost told her to not go, to stay there with him. He wanted to be selfish that day, he knew she had been requested and that wasn’t something anyone could or should refuse. But, it had hurt not having her there with him. They hadn’t been separated for that long before, and it was hell for Jace. Everything in his life was better when Kaycee was there with him, he hoped that she wasn’t requested ever again as he wouldn’t be able to deal with that. His light eyes moved back onto the demon that they were following, the demon shifted to be a female before she turned a corner.

Jace watched as she past a bottle of blood to another demon, right now he was focused on the female demon as he wanted to know who was ordering demons to get mundane blood. Arriving in a back alley, he noticed she wasn’t alone although that didn’t bother Jace. He walked up behind the demon, his Seraph blade ready in his hand. “Where did you get the mundane blood from?” He asked her before hearing a soft chuckle from her, “Why? Were you after some?” She grinned as she answered, “Not quite. I would be interested in knowing who the supply is going to,” Jace asked and he thought he asked her nicely, of course he knew a demon wouldn’t just give him the answers he wanted, at least not easily.

---

Josee glanced to Kaycee, “Yeah. I’m fine,” She brushed off the bad feeling she had as she followed Alec and Izzy, pulling her Seraph blade out once she reached the back of the alley. She rolled her eyes when the demon told them that they were outnumbered, “Finished showing off yet?” She looked to Jace before her eyes moved over her friends, as Jace attacked the female demon, it caused the other demons to react. Josee started fighting off any demon that came close to her, she easily had the upper hand on the male demons as she swung her blade skilfully.

As she fought demons, Josee would always check on Kaycee every now and again, to make sure her parabatai and best friend didn’t need her help. For a little while, Josee forgot about the feeling in the pit of stomach, as she focused on killing the demons that were causing trouble. However, it wasn’t until she spun around to face another demon, when his boot made contact with her stomach. She felt her body being pushed backwards, she prepared herself to fall onto the rough concrete ground and while she did, her body also fell into something else. Glancing beside her, her eyes found the guy that she had seen standing by a van only minutes before.

Not only could he see her, but they had also made contact which shouldn’t be happening. Josee was shocked, she didn’t know what was going on. Not that she had a chance to think, as the demon was charging at her now and her blade had been knocked from her hand. “Kaycee,” She called out to her parabatai as she swung her leg out, knocking the demon off of his feet to give Kaycee just enough time to reach her. She watched as her best friend took care of the demon, standing up Josee grabbed her blade before looking at the handsome mundane.

“What the hell? How can a mundane see us?” Jace voiced firmly as he stormed over, the kid could have ruined their mission and gotten his friends hurt. “Are you okay?” Josee asked as she looked at him, her hand reaching out, so she could help him up. No one had ever really captured Josee’s attention before, yet somehow this attractive guy had. He looked so confused and freaked out by what he had just seen, and Josee wanted to make sure he was okay.

(Combining again, since they’re all together now!)

Despite Jace’s teasing, Kaycee had been able to hold her own in the fight, honestly glad to be able to be back in a fight. It felt so much more natural than just sitting around in meetings and listening to others. Plus, fighting alongside her best friend and parabatai always gave her a sort of rush - she always felt more confident when fighting with Josee nearby, more secure, as if the two of them could take on the world together. And, really, she was sure that they probably could, because they worked so well together. They fed off each other and could read each other’s actions and body languages easier than most other people. When Kaycee heard Josee, though, she reacted quickly, turning to look to see what happened before she rushed to fight the demon.

It was a quick fight, a few slashes before she stabbed the demon through the chest and twisted her seraph blade to finish the job, though she looked to Josee with concern. “Josee, are you alright?” she asked, crouching down to check on her parabatai, but her attention went to the mundane - he was clearly mundane, without any Shadowhunter markings on him. Her brows furrowed slightly, but she decided to let the others deal with that issue while she focused on her parabatai, although it seemed that her parabatai was more worried about the mundane. Seeing how Josee was checking on the mundane, Kaycee couldn’t help but to be a little amused a she arched a brow teasingly.

“Wh-What was that?” Simon asked, panicking as he looked between the group. They’d all just killed a bunch of people. What was going on? “Mundane?” His brows furrowed as he looked to the blonde male who’d spoken. “What are you talking about? How would I not be able to see you?” His mind filled with questions and he was struggling to process all of it, trying to understand what he had just witnessed. But, more than that, he was trying to figure who these people were and why they were killing people - and how somebody as beautiful as the blonde girl could be capable of killing anybody. Of course, he knew that murderers came in all shapes and sizes, but she seemed far too… Perfect, to be able to kill anybody, ever. So, what the hell was going on?

He paused, though, when the girl questioned him, and he looked to her, watching her for a moment as he took her in. If she was just some cold-blooded murderer, why would she be asking if he was okay? Why would she seem actually concerned about him? He wondered if, maybe, there was something more going on here than he was aware of. Obviously, there had to be. Everything that he’d seen - that entire fight - had almost seemed… Supernatural, and it freaked him out. “Yeah, yeah, I’m okay, just freaking out a bit, no big deal. I mean, who wouldn’t be freaking out in a situation like this, when somebody just watched a gorgeous girl and her friends kill a bunch of people?” he spouted out, unable to stop himself and unaware that he’d outright called the blonde girl gorgeous.

“They weren’t normal people,” Izzy said easily from where she was, though she watched the mundane with faint amusement, arching a brow. “They were demons.”

“They were... “ Simon trailed off, his brows furrowing. “Wait, what?” He looked back to the blonde, then to the others, confused and finding it difficult to understand the situation. “You can’t be serious. That’s not possible.” He watched for a moment. “Wait, I get it! It’s a prank! You didn’t actually kill those people. This is just some show you guys put on to scare anybody who’s watching, that’s all.” That had to be it, because nothing else made sense.

“We are serious. It is possible,” Kaycee mentioned, watching the boy before she stood up, straightening, “And, no, this isn’t a prank. Nobody can usually see us, so this wasn’t us putting on a show.” She looked to Josee, then, frowning slightly. “Which means that something’s wrong.” And, that worried her. They needed to figure out a way to fix this entire situation before things got bad.

Jace signed impatiently as he watched the scene unfold in front of him, Kaycee was right, if this mundane could see them then it meant something was very wrong. He only hoped that only this one mundane had seen them fighting the demons, as he really didn’t want to deal with any mundane right now. “Kaycee’s right, if he can see us then something has gone wrong and we need to leave, now.” He stated firmly as he glanced over to Alec, knowing Alec would back up what he was saying.

Either their runes weren’t working, or it was the area they were standing in, either way Jace wanted to get back to the institute where it was safe, and they would figure out why this happened. “You two have already said way too much,” He spoke as he looked at Izzy and Kaycee, he would have just left the mundane there with no explanation. Apparently, the girls didn’t feel the same way as he did, so now this mundane was their problem.

“Jace is right, come on.” Alec looked at his friends, he also didn’t want to deal with the mundane as he knew if he could see them, then they were in danger. And he’d rather not have his family in danger, but as he turned to leave, he noticed the girls weren’t. Josee couldn’t stop the smile from forming on her face when the mundane called her gorgeous, she didn’t dare look at Kaycee as she knew the look that her best friend would be giving her right now.

But her smile turned to a frown as she heard what Jace and Alec were saying, “We can’t just leave him here. He saw us, we aren’t going to lie to him just because that would be the easiest thing for us.” She looked at Jace and Alec, she wasn’t going to leave the mundane. It would probably take him a day or so to fully understand all of this, and it wasn’t fair on him if they left him alone. “He can come back to the institute, he has seen too much. Isn’t it our job to protect mundanes?” Josee fired back as they needed to do the right thing, they had to fix this.

Jace pinched the bridge of his nose, he already knew he wasn’t going to win if this turned into an argument. “Fine, but let’s just hurry the hell up and get out of here.” He grumbled as he stepped forward, his hand grabbing the mundane’s arm before he pulled him to his feet. “Keep up with us or we will leave you behind,” He looked at the mundane as he was being firm with him, Jace wasn’t going to waste his time if the kid couldn’t keep up with them, he could deal with the girls’ backlash as he had many times before. Letting his arm go, Jace turned around before he started walking away with Alec by his side. “This is going to kick us in the ass, I know it.” He told his parabatai quietly, glancing over his shoulder to make sure his friends were following him.

“Hi, I’m Josee.” Josee smiled at the mundane as she looked at him, clearly, he was still freaking out, but she would explain everything to him once he was ready. “It will be safer for you to come with us and seeing the institute might help you believe us a little more.” She knew they probably seemed crazy to him, but a part of her hoped that he would come with them.

Not just so she could explain to him what she was, but also because she wanted to get to know him and see him more. “This is Kaycee and Isabelle, and those two are Jace and Alec. They don’t tend to like anyone,” She introduced the small group of Shadowhunters, Josee started following the boys as they did need to get away from that area.

“Thanks for the save,” Josee smiled at her parabatai, everything was better when Kaycee was by her side. To know someone had her back, no matter what. Josee felt more comfortable and confident, more like herself when Kaycee was close to her. “What’s your name, handsome?” Izzy asked as she walked beside the mundane, her arm wrapping around his as she sent him a smile.

Kaycee looked mildly amused when she heard Jace complaining a bit. “He can see us,” she reminded, “How can we possibly say too much when him just seeing us is way more important?” Her gaze went to Josee and she watched her, not hiding the amused grin that formed on her features, even though she could tell Josee was trying hard not to look at her. She nodded, though, to Josee’s words as she moved to straighten up. “Let’s go, then.”

Simon pushed himself to his feet, brushing off as he looked between the others, listening to them. What was even going on? “What am I supposed to believe you guys on?” he asked with confusion, looking to Josee for a few moments, watching her. “What you’re asking me to believe is impossible.” He tried to stay focused on how weird things were, but he couldn’t really focus on anything other than Josee right now - even with how panicked he’d been earlier, his nerves seemed to calm a bit with Josee there.

Before he could tell her his name, though, she’d introduced the others and they were heading off to… Wherever. The group had called it the institute, but he wondered if he was actually being led off to be killed or something. After all, he had just witnessed the group killing a bunch of people, so it wouldn’t really surprise him, even though he didn’t want to think about the possibility of Josee actually killing him somehow. Something about her made him want to believe her, even though he couldn’t explain it.

Kaycee smiled slightly to Josee and shook her head slightly. “You don’t have to thank me,” she reminded quietly, nudging her gently, “You’re my parabatai, I’ll always have your back.” And, it was true. Josee was the most important person to her. No matter how much Jace mattered to her and what her feelings for Jace were, Josee was basically her sister - they’d grown up together and they were parabatai. Nobody could be closer than parabatai.

Simon listened to the pair, though he blinked, his gaze going to the other girl, whose arm had looped into his. “Oh, uh, it’s Simon,” he told her with a small nod, watching her, though his attention easily returned over towards Josee as he hoped she’d heard him say his name, too. “I’d say it’s nice to meet all of you, but… I kind of just saw you guys kill a lot of people and I’m not entirely sure I’m not about to die, so…”

“You think we’d kill you?” Kaycee asked with faint amusement as she looked over at him, “If that was the case, you’d kind of already be dead, don’t you think?” She shrugged gently and nudged Josee again a little teasingly. “He’s a little paranoid, isn’t he? Awkward paranoid.” A small, teasing grin formed on her features, but she looked back ahead, watching Jace and Alec for a few moments.

Jace glanced back over his shoulder and shot Kaycee an unimpressed look, “You know what I mean.” He grumbled as he wasn’t happy with any of this, they still have no idea who wanted mundane blood and now a mundane had witnessed them killing a bunch of demons. This would have to be one of the worst, if not the worst, mission he had ever been on. He wanted to get back to the institute and forget that tonight even happened, hopefully the mundane wouldn’t cause problems for them, although Jace was preparing himself for many problems to come with the boy.

Josee looked at the mundane and smiled when Izzy sidled up beside him, “I know all of this seems impossible now. But I promise it won’t stay like that,” She assured him, it would be easier to explain this world to him once he was at the institute and could actually see what they did. Normally Josee wouldn’t have bothered as much with a mundane, but there was this feeling in her gut, she first noticed it when their eyes had connected as she had walked past him. It was a feeling she hadn’t ever experienced before, but it didn’t scare Josee or cause her worry.

“I know, I’m just so happy that you’re finally back.” Josee smiled at her best friend, she had only been a few months old when Denise and Lewis took her into their family. She would never understand why, considering they had a newborn baby of their own. But Josee couldn’t have asked for a better family, she may not be related by blood but that has never been an issue for them. She loved her family more than life itself, and she’d do everything in her power to keep them safe. “You have no idea the struggle I’ve had, dealing with Jace without you.” Josee knew the secret feelings that Kaycee held deep inside of her for the blonde Shadowhunter.

“I can hear you,” Jace rolled his eyes at the comment Josee made about him, although he could admit that he wasn’t completely himself while Kaycee was away. Everything seemed to annoy him more and his temper only seemed to become shorter, it was something he wasn’t ever going to admit though. He was going to ignore it and push it to the back of his mind, because now Kaycee was back, and he hoped she wouldn’t be called away again. He kept his eyes focused ahead as he led the group with Alec by his side, thankfully it wouldn’t be a long walk for them until they reached the institute, because the mundane was still talking.

Josee smiled as she looked over at Simon, she liked that name. She looked back to Kaycee as they followed Alec and Jace, “He is. But he’s cute… like really cute,” She lowered her voice as she didn’t want Simon to overhear her. As they headed further away from the city, the streets grew darker and it was no reason why Simon thought they were going to also kill him as well. She was slightly surprised that he hadn’t taken off running in the opposite direction, she was glad he hadn’t, but she wouldn’t have blamed him if he had.

Some minutes later, they stepped onto the grounds of the church. To the eye of a mundane, the church looked to have been abandoned many years ago. It was the only way to keep mundane’s out and stop them from finding out about the other world that secretly existed right under their noses, Jace pushed the heavy wooden door open and wanted to just keep walking into the building, he didn’t as he held the door open for his friends and the mundane.

“Welcome to the institute, this is our home.” Izzy spoke as she brought Simon into the church, she grinned at the confusion on his face as he saw the abandoned church that all mundane’s saw. “I’ll leave this up to you, Josee.” She let Simon’s arm go and stepped away, Josee moved closer to Simon and pulled her stele from the pocket of her pants. Placing the tip of her stele to a rune that marked the skin on her forearm, she winced from the pain it caused for a few seconds before her hand found his. It was the only way for a mundane to see this part of the world, her eyes focused on him as the church turned into the institute that she knew and loved. “This is what we do,” She told him knowing it would take time for her to explain everything to him, but this was still a good start.

“He’s seriously staying?” Jace looked at Kaycee, “I could scare him into forgetting everything he saw.” He grinned as he wasn’t actually joking, leave the mundane in a room with him and Alec for a minute, and he knew the boy would leave and never speak or think of this night again.

A small smile formed on Kaycee’s lips when she heard her friend’s words and she peered towards Jace, wondering how much of it was true and how much of it was just Josee saying things to make her feel confident about how she felt for Jace. Shaking the thoughts away, she cleared her throat and looked back to her parabatai. “Nerdy, awkward cute,” she teased her friend lightly, nudging her gently while she grinned. “If he can see us, I say go for it.” She winked teasingly and looked ahead, giving a quiet, innocent hum as if she hadn’t said anything at all, because she didn’t want to make Josee feel uncomfortable with whatever attraction she felt towards the mundane. No, whatever Josee decided to do in regards to her attraction to Simon, Kaycee would stand by her completely and support it, because Josee had done the same for years in regards to how Kaycee felt for Jace.

When they got to an old, abandoned-looking church, Simon almost deflated a bit, almost having expected something more… Grand, if this people were telling the truth. But, seeing this awful place, he wondered if they really were just going to kill him - the girls didn’t really seem to have any intention to, while the guys seemed all too eager to at least hit him around, but he did just witness all of them killing a bunch of people, so should it really surprise him if their actual intention was to just kill him and leave him in this abandoned church for nobody to ever find him again? He felt a slight panic build up in him, then, but, before he could do or say anything, his attention was caught by Josee again and he felt that dread dissipating, slipping away, and he wasn’t quite sure what it was about this girl that had that sort of effect on him when he was normally a nervous mess when it came to girls.

When she pulled out something and ran it over her skin, Simon’s eyes widened with concern, especially when she’d winced in pain. “Hey, what are you doing?” he asked with a bit of panic, worried about her hurting herself, but he paused, the thoughts drawing to a halt when she took his hand, and he stared at her for a long moment, surprised. It took him even longer to register her words and his brows furrowed as he tore his eyes away from her to look at the building in front of them. What stood there now wasn’t a run down building at all anymore - it was some crazy, majestic building that even Simon would describe as beautiful. “Whoa,” he said with shock, blinking several times as he took in the sight, though he hadn’t really realized that he was still holding onto Josee’s hand. It felt so natural that he barely noticed it at first, but, even when he did, he didn’t pull away, pretending he still hadn’t realized it. “What, exactly, is going on?” he asked, settling his gaze back on her, blinking, “Is this magic or something? How did that happen? It just... Appeared out of nowhere!” He was shocked, really, that something like that could ever happen. How was it possible?

His attention remained on Josee for a few moments longer before he blinked. “What do you mean it’s what you do?” he asked with curiosity, his brows furrowing, then. “What do you guys do? Magic tricks?” He looked back to the building, staring at it. “I mean… How is something like this - something like what you just did - how is any of this possible?” He couldn’t wrap his mind around it - it shouldn’t be possible at all, but it clearly was, because he’d just seen it with his own eyes. How many people got the opportunity to see something like that happen? How many people were like this group? What all was out there in the world now?

After a moment, Kaycee settled an amused look on Jace and rolled her eyes slightly, trying not to smile. Of course, it didn’t surprise her at all that he was going into this - it was how Jace had always been, after all, protective. Simon being able to see them was something none of them expected and they needed answers as to why it was possible, what had gone wrong, and she was sure the unknowns put Jace on edge and made it all the more difficult for him to really accept that this had to be done the right way. “Don’t be mean,” she said gently, nudging him as she offered a smile, “It’s my first day back, I don’t want it ruined because you decide to beat a mundane to a pulp.” She tilted her head. “Don’t make me pull the ‘please, for me’ card, because you know I will.” She eyed him for a few moments, taking him in, mostly just glad to be able to see him again. “Besides,” she lowered her voice, then, and peered back at Josee and Simon, then back at Jace. “I think Josee’s taken a shine to him, so be nice. Or… Well, as nice as you can be to somebody who isn’t us.”

Jace liked to have control over missions, Alec was very much the same way. They liked to have a plan and know exactly what they were getting themselves into, Alec more so then Jace. Having a mundane be able to see them, witness them killing demons, was hard for him to except. He knew Kaycee was right, they couldn’t brush this off nor could he deal with the mundane in the way he was tempted to at that second. But, not knowing why the mundane could see them was making Jace anxious. They hadn’t stayed in the city long enough to make sure if any other mundane had seen them, he hoped that none had as that would only cause them more trouble. “I’m not being mean… and it wouldn’t ruin your day, if you pretended not to know.” He grinned as he was now joking, he wouldn’t take the mundane into a room and make sure he kept this a secret.

“It isn’t magic, no.” Josee smiled as she looked at Simon, she knew she was still holding his hand. She didn’t get a feeling that she should let his hand go, he also wasn’t pulling his hand away from hers, so she decided to just go with how she was feeling in that moment. “It didn’t just appear, it was always here. I guess you could say there is a spell over the church, to keep us hidden from mundanes finding us. You can only now see it, because I wanted you to.” She explained to him as simply as she could, so he could still understand what she was saying as he still tried to take all of the information in. She didn’t want to overwhelm him all at once, so as she still held his hand she moved further into the institute with him. There were many other Shadowhunter’s walking around the institute and just working, many of them stared at Simon, thankfully though none of them voiced their clear opinion on why Josee had brought a mundane to their institute.

His eyes moved over to where Josee was standing before he looked back at Kaycee, “I’m also worried about that. We all know what will be said if a relationship is to form between a Shadowhunter and a mundane,” He lowered his voice as it had been craved into every Shadowhunter’s mind from a young age, that they were only to marry and have a family with another Shadowhunter to keep their line going. “If he hurts her or puts her in danger, I’ll tear his head off.” Jace’s tone went serious, he had always seen Josee as a little sister and knew he had to protect her. A sense he never felt for Kaycee, of course he would protect her with his life, but he had never seen her as a sister. What he felt for her had always been more, stronger and deeper than anything he felt for anyone.

“This part of the world exists, just like your world exists. We’ve always been here, we just stay hidden. Our main job is to fight enough demons, which is what you witnessed tonight. We keep the peace in the Shadow World, which is our world and also protect mundanes.” Josee hoped she wasn’t overloading Simon’s head, he did keep asking the questions and she wanted to answer all that he had. “A mundane isn’t allowed to see us, unless we want them to. These markings that we have,” She used her free hand to push her jacket back, so Simon could see the rune that marked the skin of her shoulder. “These are runes, they give us different abilities. Including invisibility to the mundane eye,” Josee moved her jacket back into place, giving Simon the chance to take in what she had just told him.

Jace needed to take his mind off of the mundane, draping his arm across Kaycee’s shoulders he looked at her. “I’m going to find out how he saw us, want to help? Or do you have other duties now that you’ve come back from Idris,” He teased her as he couldn’t help himself, he had teased her when she had first been beckoned by The Clave. Now that she was back, he found himself still wanting to tease her about it. It was a way for him to hide how he truly felt about her, he thought he could keep everyone from figuring out how much he loved Kaycee, if he acted like he didn’t. It was a flawless plan in Jace’s mind, although Alec saw through it instantly, but he also wasn’t the type of person who would go around telling people. He wanted to tell the beautiful brunette, he wanted to hold her and kiss her and to be able to be hers. But he was terrified that if he did say anything, it would ruin their friendship if she didn’t return how he felt. He had no idea how she truly felt about him, and right now he wasn’t going to risk losing her.

“Who cares what they have to say about it?” Kaycee asked quietly, looking towards Jace for a moment, watching him. “They’ll just have to get over it and let Josee be happy. She deserves it.” Considering everything that Josee had been through just as a baby, Kaycee felt that she deserved a chance to be genuinely happy with somebody, regardless of what the Clave or any other shadowhunter thought. A small grin formed on her features, though, and she rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, if it comes to him hurting her, ever, you’ll have to get to him before I do, because I won’t stand to let him hurt her.” Josee meant the world to her; they were as close as sisters, they’d been raised together, and they were Parabatai. They knew each other in and out, and there was no way she’d ever let anybody hurt her Parabatai without some serious consequences.

Feeling Jace’s arm drape across her shoulders, though, she found herself relaxing against him slightly, feeling her worries ease away a bit. She wasn’t really sure what it was about Jace, but she always felt more at ease with him near her; his presence brought a certain comfort that she didn’t really ever feel with anybody else. She wasn’t sure if that had to do with her feelings for Jace or if it was just who Jace was as a person, but she definitely wasn’t complaining one bit. “Right, we should probably definitely get to that,” she decided, offering a small smile as she looked up at him, watching him for a moment. For a moment, she so desperately wished that she could admit her feelings to him, that she could tell him how much she loved him and how much he meant to her, but she swallowed the words back instead and turned to go search for some explanation.

---

Simon’s brows furrowed as he tried to process everything that she was saying. His eyes scanned the building for a few long moments, mildly concerned about how anybody would react with him there. After all, the two guys who’d been with Josee hadn’t seemed to take well to him, so he wondered how anybody else who spotted him there would react. There was a slight worry that built up in him, wondering if they’d attack him or threaten him in the way that Jace had, but he forced the thoughts away, focusing instead on Josee’s voice and on Josee’s smile. While she said that whatever had hidden the institute hadn’t been magic, he couldn’t help but to wonder if the way the sight of her affected him was. “So… Not magic, but still a sort of spell thing,” he said, struggling to understand it, “Why are you letting me see all of this now?” But, really, he was kind of interested in taking this all in.

When she continued to explain things, he found her watching her intently. And, really, a part of him was paying more attention to her than he was to what she was saying, but he still caught some of the tidbits. “Demons are actually a thing? How do you know if somebody’s a demon? Wait, is it possession or something?” he asked as he walked with her, unable to help but to spew the questions, because he couldn’t help but to be curious about it all. In truth, he’d never expected anything like this to actually exist or to be real or, even if he’d thought it was, he’d never thought that he would have ever been able to witness anything like it. “Do you think there are others out there like me, who managed to see you guys, though? Or is there a possibility that others have seen you before?” A part of him admittedly worried about that, because it seemed like that relied heavily on secrecy. “And, what’s a mundane?”

Jace had never cared where or who his family found happiness and love with, as long as they were truly happy, that was all he cared about. But he did worry that Josee could fall for the mundane, someone who wouldn’t be able to protect her and keep her safe. “You know I agree with you on that, but he’s still a mundane.” He had lost his parents, much like Josee. Since losing his father, he found it hard to trust people he didn’t already know. Not many people broke down the wall that he built around himself, in order to keep people from getting too close to him and then eventually leaving him like everyone seems to do. He knew Josee wasn’t like that, she had always seen the good in people even if she was a Shadowhunter. He chuckled softly as he looked at Kaycee, “Well the same time we had a race. I did win, so I could probably out run you.” He grinned rather smugly as he looked at her, but if the mundane did hurt Josee, he would allow Kaycee to get to him first. But he would still be right there waiting for his turn.

Jace decided to keep his arm around Kaycee’s shoulders as it felt nice, guiding her over to the computer, he wanted to check the area they had been in. Maybe the database would shed some light onto why the mundane was able to see them, although Jace felt like if the answer was an obvious one, they should have known before being sent there. Sadly, he had to remove his arm from Kaycee, however he slowly pulled back, still letting his hand brush over her back in doing so. “So, how was things in Idris?” He asked as his fingers hit the keyboard as he started typing, trying to find anything that could explain what happened earlier that night. Glancing over at Kaycee, all he wanted to do was spend time with her. Without having to worry about this mission or anything else that would be coming their way, he wanted to talk to her, listen about her time at the Clave. Train with her or just hang out together, the two of them.

---

“Yeah…” Josee realise then that maybe she should have let Izzy explain their world to Simon, she was worried she wasn’t doing a good job and was just making him more confused. Looking at him, she thought about his question. Why was she allowing him to see her world? “You seemed different,” She settled on that answer, she couldn’t say it was because he followed her and that she found him utterly attractive. “I felt like I could trust you, besides you had already seen us killing those demons.” She pointed out to him, she wasn’t going to leave him on his own after witnessing them fighting those demons. She continued to explain her world to him, before giving him time to let the information sink in. “Demons are real, yes. We just… know, it’s a sense we can feel. It’s to explain…” That was all the proof she needed, she was doing a terrible job now that she was actually trying to make him understand more about her and her life.

“Demons are born, it’s in their blood.” She looked at him before her eyes moved across the room, searching for Izzy who would be better at talking to Simon. “A mundane is someone like you, a human who has no idea this world exists.” Turning her attention back onto him, “I’ll go find Izzy. She’ll be much better at this, I know I’m just confusing you even more. Which isn’t what I want, I want you to understand and want to maybe stick around. I don’t want to scare you off,” Josee rambled before she forced her mouth shut, she didn’t want to tell Simon that she found him hot, not just yet. “I hope we haven’t been seen before, normally we don’t have to worry about mundanes seeing us. We’ll figure out why you did though,” Josee tried not to worry or think about times where they had been on a mission in a public place, she prayed that all of those times, no mundanes had witnessed them without them realising.

Kaycee nodded slightly in understanding to Jace’s words. “Yeah, well… Mundane or not, I really just want Josee happy,” she said quietly, “The only thing I’m really worried about is the possibility of something happening and her getting caught off guard and him not being able to protect her, because he’s a mundane. But, then, I know that Josee can handle her own and, even so, I’ve always got her back, so I’m not overly worried about that.” She knew Josee’s skills, she knew how well Josee could protect herself - she knew her best friend, her Parabatai, as well as she knew herself, so she had full faith in her Parabatai that Josee could protect herself. But, even if there was a slim chance that something went wrong, Kaycee knew she’d be right there with Josee to help her. She made a face, though, with the reminder of the race, and she stuck her tongue out at him. “You barely won!” she said with a laugh, “And I’m still convinced that you cheated somehow.”

But, she pushed the thought aside in favor of enjoying the feeling of Jace’s arm around her shoulders for a little while longer. She could let herself relish in the moment, because she knew she wouldn’t get many moments like this, not without the possibility of giving away her feelings for Jace. But, she’d only just gotten back that day; she was going to let herself enjoy this moment while it lasted, since she wasn’t sure if she’d get an opportunity like this for a while, and she’d been away from this contact for too long as it was. “They were good. Boring, but good,” she told him with a nod, though she chewed on her lip when she felt his hand brush her back when he pulled his arm away. It sent a certain kind of electricity through her that she’d missed more than she cared to admit. “There was a lot of training, way too many important meetings, most of which I wasn’t even allowed into.” She made a face, but shrugged. “How were things here while I was gone?”

---

Simon listened to her quietly, taking in everything she was saying and processing it as much as he could, though he could admit that he was partially distracted by her beauty. “Different?” he asked after a moment as he watched her, taking her in, “What about me… Really seemed different?” A part of him was hugely curious, wondering what it was she saw in him, curious about her opinion of him overall. When she mentioned trusting him, a small smile formed on his lips and he ducked his head slightly, a little surprised to hear it, especially since most of the others seemed pretty distrustful of him. But, here Josee was, willing to open up and trust him and explain as much as she could - it had his mind whirling, of course, but he was glad she was willing to see past the fact that he’d freaked out quite a bit earlier. “Well… I’m glad, then,” he said after a moment, lifting his gaze to look at her, his gaze locking onto hers as he watched her, “I’m glad that you felt like you could trust me.”

She was willingly showing him her world - or as much of her world as she could, even with some of her friends disliking the idea. Since when did he get that lucky? Still, he nodded as he absorbed her explanations. “Right, so… There are demons, mundanes… What are you guys, exactly? Or are you just humans, too?” He looked to her, watching her. “And, what else is out there?” Now that he’d been introduced into this world, he wanted to learn as much as he could. But, before he could think much about it, she was mentioning getting Izzy, and he blinked but shook his head. “No, no, you’re doing great. I’m just… Processing, and trying to figure out as much as I can.” Smiling, though, he watched her while she rambled on, admittedly finding it fairly cute. At least he wasn’t the only one who rambled on occasion. He listened, though, and nodded. “Maybe those markings don’t work in certain areas? Or there was something specific about that area that made it faulty?”

Jace looked at Kaycee as he knew exactly what she was saying, he knew that he shouldn’t worry about Alec when on a mission. But, there will always be that part of him, a small part that does worry. He couldn’t and wouldn’t be able to survive if he lost his Parabatai in any way, they held the strongest of bonds, bonds that couldn’t easily be broken by anyone. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but maybe the mundane will surprise us. And if he doesn’t, then Josee doesn’t just have you, she has all of us.” He promised as they were all a family, Jace didn’t have his parents alive anymore, he counted on his friends to be his family and to have his back. Grinning, he decided to be a little bolder than he normally would be with Kaycee. “Oh, I didn’t need to cheat, when I want to impress someone, I guess my natural talent becomes even greater.” He had wanted to impress Kaycee that day, a day doesn’t go past without him wanting to impress her more and more. The ways he took were admittedly subtle, he still wasn’t sure on how she felt about him. If she saw him as her friend, or perhaps something more.

Listening to what she did while she had been away, made he feel grateful that he was more on the front line in protecting their world. He would be driven crazy if he had to sit through meetings all day long, he could barely sit still for longer than five minutes. “The meetings sound boring, but with all of your new training, you’ll have to show me what you learnt.” He wouldn’t miss on having a training session with her, he always did enjoy them as it gave him a chance to be close to her without anyone thinking differently. It was stupid, he knew that. It was Kaycee, the girl he had known pretty much all his life. He fought demons on a daily basis, he risked his life to protect this world. Yet he was scared to tell Kaycee how much he loved her, he couldn’t bring himself to kiss her in fear of her rejecting him. “Things here have been fine, Alec is still a grump and Izzy is still trying to prove herself. Josee struggled a bit without you, but we were there for her.” He didn’t want to lie to her, he could also tell that Josee hadn’t been the only one who struggled without having their Parabatai close.

---

Panic filled Josee when Simon wanting to know where she thought he was different, the only answers that came to her mind were what she didn’t want to tell him. “Well… I mean you are pretty cute… pretty hot actually.” She looked at him and wondered how Izzy made this look so easy, “I also guess that you did follow a complete stranger down a dark alley. Not knowing what you were stepping into, I think that’s brave and it takes guts.” Admitting that to Simon wasn’t as hard as what she had first thought, obviously they didn’t know each other much, that didn’t bother Josee as she hoped they would have plenty of time to spend with each other. “We are human, but all Shadowhunters are born with angel blood. Which makes us do exactly what we do, it enhances our abilities and skills.” She could see that he was still processing everything that he had seen and heard tonight, yet he was still able to ask her questions, he seemed to still want to know more about her world.

“We also have werewolves, vampires, warlocks, and even fairies. They all exist, not that I want you around any of them.” Josee couldn’t care less that she had only just met Simon, she wouldn’t allow him to get into harms way or to be harmed. He didn’t deserve that, he had been dragged into this world, undeniably by her. Most creatures she knew would leave him alone, though she knew Simon being in her life as a mundane would instantly put a target on his back. Looking back at him a frown pulled her brows together, “We’ve never been somewhere that our runes haven’t worked. They work everywhere, but that’s something for us to figure out.” Josee knew that if Simon stuck around and went deeper into this world, it could ruin his life. He had to have a family and friends, a job and hobbies. As much as she felt a connection with him, Josee knew she might have to cut him off from all of this, from her if this world started to engulf him. This wasn’t his world, her world was dangerous, she knew that first hand from losing her parents. They were Shadowhunters while Simon was an innocent mundane, who had followed her.

Kaycee smiled, relieved to hear that Jace was at least considering trusting the mundane. She could tell that Josee seemed fairly interested in him, after all, and she didn’t want to ruin that for her Parabatai. More than anything, she wanted Josee to be happy, even if being involved with a mundane was forbidden. She’d be damned before she let anybody ruin that for Josee. “Right,” she confirmed with a small nod, “And, on the bright side, at least he seems interested in her, so I’m really hoping things work out, for her sake.” For Kaycee, Josee always came first - and Kaycee was sure that Josee always would. They were practically sisters, having grown up together, raised together, but they were closer than even sisters, because of their Parabatai bond. They would die for each other and Kaycee couldn’t imagine being Parabatai with anybody other than Josee. Her attention, however, was caught when she heard Jace’s words and she looked over at him before a small grin formed on her features. “That so?” she asked, genuinely curious, because if it was the truth, then maybe her feelings weren’t just one-sided.

She made a joking face to his later words. “The meetings were beyond boring,” she agreed with a nod, because she preferred being active and doing things to help the world - training, fighting, killing demons, whatever it took. But, meetings? They didn’t feel proactive at all to her and she’d been antsy through most of them, mostly daydreaming about being back home - and, sure, there were the occasional times where her daydreams wandered more around Jace and what she wanted between them, but she never let her mind wander too far into those, too worried about it. A small grin formed on her face, though, and she nodded. “Yeah, of course. I don’t mind the idea of showing you a few new moves. Plus, there aren’t many times where I get to be the one to show off.” And, since she was sure it would rarely happen, she was definitely going to take the opportunity when she could get it. Besides, their training sessions together meant more to her than she dared admit, and she missed them. “Thank you, for being there for Josee - all of you.” She watched Jace for a long time, her expression softening. “It means a lot, especially since I couldn’t be here for her myself.”

---

For a long moment, Simon had thought he’d heard Josee wrong, that there was no way this gorgeous girl was calling him cute or hot. That kind of thing never happened to him - girls he was attracted to were never attracted to him in return. Was he dreaming? That had to be the case, right? He shifted, pinching himself, and winced with the pain, realizing it wasn’t a dream - and then realizing just how ridiculous he must seem, how much of a dork he must be to Josee, for him to go and pinch himself out of nowhere. “Wow, um… I never really thought that somebody as beautiful as you would think anything like that about me,” he said with shock, though it took him a little while to really realize what he’d said and he could feel his cheeks warming in embarrassment. Oh, God, he was going to ruin any chance he had with Josee before he even got the chance, all because he was being the biggest dork on the face of that planet. But, hearing her call him brave, he could feel a bit of pride well up in him. “Really? You think so? It wasn’t just some creep move?” He smiled slightly, relaxing a bit despite his earlier concerns, but listened to her talk - he was sure he could listen to her talk all day, honestly. “Wait, so you guys are part angel, then?” No wonder she was so gorgeous, then, if she had angel in her - she looked like an angel, to him.

While she listed off all the other creatures that apparently existed, he couldn’t help but to grow more and more curious about this world. How was it that all of that stuff actually existed and nobody really knew about any of it? Sure, they’d probably all read the average fantasy book about werewolves or vampires or warlocks or faeries, but he was sure nobody ever thought any of it was actually real - they’d just let their imagination run wild to create all these magnificent creatures. But, then, he supposed that all those ideas, all those thoughts about mystical creatures had to come from somewhere. “That’s… Pretty amazing,” he managed, shocked as he watched her. “I mean, shocking and completely out of this world, but… Amazing.” And, somehow, he’d been lucky enough to find a girl who was a part of it all - and apparently he’d been lucky to even see her. “Any idea why your… Runes… Weren’t working there? Or any idea whether this is the first time they haven’t worked or if they haven’t worked anywhere else before and nobody noticed?” If it was just this one time that the runes hadn’t worked, what made them not work? He couldn’t help but to be curious and a part of him wanted to help them figure it out - if only to help Josee or even to impress her.

“Just don’t go getting your hopes up,” Jace looked at Kaycee as they still didn’t know anything about the mundane apart from his name, Josee didn’t know anything about the boy and yet, here he was being shown their world in which they worked so hard to keep hidden from all mundanes. Chuckling softly, he nodded his head. “Yeah, why was it not obvious?” He asked knowing he was subtle with showing his feelings, but maybe he was being too subtle, and Kaycee wasn’t picking up on the things he did to impress her. Or did she not notice him, because she didn’t see him as anything but a friend? He really couldn’t tell, he wasn’t about to just come out and ask her, that would only end in her rejecting him, or that’s what he thought. He grinned at how she described the meetings that she had been stuck in, “And that’s the reason why I’m shocked they ordered you over there. Maybe they were trying to see how’d you go, I hope they leave you alone now. You deserve to be here with us, you belong with us. Not wasting your time in meetings,” Jace knew when Kaycee got the order, that she was going to hate not being there with them and going on missions. This is what they were born to do, they didn’t spend all their lives training to sit inside all day long.

“You don’t need to show off, everyone knows how talented you are at everything.” Jace told her honestly, she had always been amazing at everything she tried. Growing up, it was something he had always been jealous of. He knew he was good at fighting and being a leader, but Kaycee was just great at whatever she put her mind too. It still confused him as to how anyone could be talented at so many different things, he hadn’t met anyone like Kaycee, she truly was one of kind and he loved that about her. “Whenever you’re ready for some training, I am.” He enjoyed training with her, not only was it fun and gave him a chance to be close to her. He enjoyed spending time with her, especially now that she has returned home, he felt like if he didn’t spend time with her then he might lose her. “You don’t need to thank us,” Josee was family to Jace, he would never let her suffer through anything on her own. “Just promise me that you won’t leave again, Josee can get pretty moody without you around.” Plus, Jace didn’t want to be without Kaycee himself. Things just didn’t feel right without her there, every day felt off to him and that was a feeling he never wanted to feel again.

---

Josee couldn’t help but smile as she watched Simon pinched himself from what she had said to him, then a frown replaced her smile as she looked at him. She didn’t like what he said about himself, how a girl like her wouldn’t be attracted to someone like him. She could still feel warmth rush to her cheeks when he called her beautiful, “Why wouldn’t I? I thought you would have had all the girls trying to get your attention,” Josee couldn’t understand why Simon was single or why he would have a hard time finding a girlfriend, maybe it was just pure luck that they were both single, even though Josee had always felt like she was the unluckiest person in the world. Shaking her head lightly, she smiled as she looked at him. “I don’t think it was creepy at all, admittedly a little dangerous for you considering you had no idea what you were walking into. Wasn’t really the smartest thing to do, but I’m glad you did.” At least he had followed her and not a demon, she would hate to think of anything horrible happening to someone so nice and genuine. “Yeah, we’re part angel.” She hoped that wouldn’t freak him out, although with what he’s seen and heard from her, she hoped that wouldn’t push him over the edge of what he could deal with.

Sighing softly, Josee shook her head to his question about why the Runes hadn’t worked earlier that night. “I honestly have no idea, we’ve never noticed our runes not working before. But maybe it has happened, if so, I hope a mundane hasn’t seen. As you know, it’s a lot to take in and we haven’t ever explained all of this to a mundane before.” Hopefully if a mundane had seen them, they would pass it off for something they can explain. “Hodge might know,” Josee stated when her eyes landed on the weapons trainer that they all had, taking a step forward she was about to ask Hodge for his help but was cut off by the blonde man. “I need to speak to you and Kaycee now, alone…” Hodge stated firmly before he frowned at the mundane, he would have to get an explanation for that later. “Hodge, we’ll tell the others anyway. What is it?” Josee asked as she followed him as he headed over towards Kaycee and Jace, she looked behind her at Simon as Hodge never acted like this and it unsettled her greatly. “Fair enough… I’ve just heard the news,” Hodge glanced between the girls, Alec and Izzy were quick to move close to their friends. “Your mother has been kidnapped… by Valentine. We’re working on finding her and bringing her home, we will find her.” Josee’s hand found Kaycee’s as she listened to what Hodge was saying, his words all blurred together once his name was spoken. He was doing it again, first Valentine had killed her parents and now he had kidnapped Denise.

Kaycee grinned slightly as she looked up to Jace, listening to him speak, easily just enjoying listening to his voice after going so long without hearing it. “I don’t know, I just always figured you were a show off,” she teased, nudging him gently, though she figured she’d have to start paying more attention from now, if only to see how true his statement had been. She laughed, though, and shook her head slightly. “I’m definitely not talented at everything, Jace. You’re just biased.” She peered over at Josee, though, while she listened to Jace talk before she offered a smile up to him. “I promise I’m not going anywhere,” she promised quietly and she would have spoken more, but she paused, seeing Hodge coming over so fast. “What?” she asked in shock when he announced that her mother had been taken, and she could feel her heart dropping, a pain going through her as she struggled to believe it and shook her head quickly. “No… No, that’s not possible, Hodge. It can’t be possible. It can’t be true, there’s no way!”

Simon blinked, surprised to hear her words, though he grinned broadly, shaking his head slightly. “Uh… No, not usually, honestly. I don’t normally attract any attention,” he told her honestly, though he could feel his heart swell with pride and happiness with the thought that Josee could have any sort of attraction to him, whether it was just her attention or an actual affection. He nodded, though. “I guess that makes sense… But, well, I got out of it mostly unscathed.” Grinning jokingly, he watched her, taking her in for a long moment, just enjoying seeing her, memorizing her while he could. “I can see that, actually. I mean… You look like an angel, I guess it only fits that you’re actually part angel.” He cringed a bit, hoping it wasn’t something too cheesy to say, but he definitely wouldn’t take it back. Before he could say anything else, though, somebody came out and had Josee’s attention and his brows furrowed as he followed the pair to the others. “Wait, what? Who’s Valentine?” He looked at the others with confusion, trying to understand what was going on.

Hodge looked at both the girls, “I’m sorry… I didn’t want you to hear it from anyone else.” He told the girls before his eyes scanned the faces of the others, including the new person that he didn’t know and didn’t know why he was standing there. “We’ll find her,” He promised as his eyes fell upon the girls once again, he saw the confusion all over their features as they tried to grasp what he had just told them. Jace frowned as he stood beside Kaycee and listened to what Hodge was saying, it didn’t make any sense to him. Though, right now that didn’t matter to him, he knew Kaycee would need him and they would need to find Denise before Valentine could do anything else. He looked at Kaycee as his hand rested on her shoulder, he gave her a gentle reassuring squeeze to let her know that he was there. He glanced back to where Izzy and Alec stood, clearly, they were also struggling to believe what was happening as Valentine was supposed to be dead. They had all been told that many years ago, which is why none of this made sense to him. “We won’t stop until we find her,” His voice dropped as he turned his attention back onto Kaycee, finding Denise was the most important task they had now.

Josee could feel the tears beginning to well up in her eyes as she looked at Hodge, “No… you’re wrong. Valentine is dead, he has been for years…” She wanted to believe that, but now she couldn’t be certain, and her gut was telling her that he did have Denise, for what reason she didn’t know. Looking over to Kaycee, she instantly begun to blame herself for this. Which caused her to step away from everyone, it was her fault that Kaycee’s mom had been kidnapped. She wanted to give her best friend time to absorb what Hodge had told them, she wanted to give her parabatai time without her being there. Turning around Josee walked away as the tears rolled down her cheeks, she could walk away from Kaycee because she knew Jace wouldn’t leave her side, plus Kaycee would have Alec and Izzy as well. Walking through the hallways, she headed straight into her bedroom as she tried to control her unsteady breathing.

Izzy watched Josee in concern, “Valentine killed Josee’s parents. If you want to be useful, follow her.” She told Simon as she walked over to Kaycee and hugged her tightly, “Alec and I will start tracking Valentine down,” She told Jace knowing he needed to stay there and comfort Kaycee as much as he could.

Kaycee shook her head slowly as she struggled to process all of this. Valentine was supposed to be dead, but a part of her had always thought cheating death was the worst possible thing to happen, because it meant he could do all the awful things he'd done before - and Valentine was the most monstrous person she knew existed, so she wasn't even sure that she was shocked that he was still alive. “Don't make promises like that, Hodge,” she said quietly, frowning to herself, because she knew how unlikely it would be that they would save her mother. Valentine killed those who stood against him, those he felt had betrayed him, and her mother had done both by infiltrating his Circle with her father and turning him in. It was just a matter of time before Valentine went through with killing Denise and Kaycee's chest ached with the thought of it, the thought of losing her mother. She turned her gaze to Jace and she watched him for a long moment, trying to be strong but finding it so hard, and she felt herself crumbling with Izzy's hug, causing her to clear her throat. “I need some air.” Turning, she headed out of the Institute.

Alec nodded slightly as he watched the others, frowning deeply to himself, worried about Josee and Kaycee. “We'll get right on it,” he assured before he turned quickly to head to the screens to start the search, knowing this was important.

Simon felt his chest ache when he saw the tears running down Josee's cheeks and he found himself wondering what was going on, wondering what he was missing, wondering what he didn't understand. Hearing Izzy's words, his gaze went to the girl for a few moments, his heart aching for Josee when Izzy mentioned that Josee's parents had been killed by Valentine. “That… What?” he asked with shock, trying to process it all, but he quickly turned and headed to search for Josee quickly instead of waiting for Izzy or anybody to really explain what all had happened, too worried about Josee, wanting to check on her and make sure she was okay. “Josee?” he called out before he picked up his pace quickly to catch up to her when he caught sight of her finally, jogging a bit so that he could catch up and get in front of her, turning quickly to place his hands on her shoulders. “Josee? Are you okay?” He knew she wasn't, he could see that she wasn't, and he felt stupid for even asking, because she clearly wasn't okay. Shifting, he slid his arms around her to hold her close, hugging her. “I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that, I just… I'm so sorry.”

Jace watched for a second as Kaycee left the Institute before he was following behind her, he didn’t want her to be on her own right now. No matter what she said to him, he wasn’t going to leave her while she processed what Hodge had said. His eyes focused on her back as she walked down the street, his steps soon gained on her and he hand gently caught her arm. He paused then and pulled her backwards into his awaiting arms, his grip was firm around her body as he held her body to his. “I agree with Hodge, we’ll find her Kaycee.” Jace hardly made promises but when he did, he made sure to keep them. He wasn’t going to let Valentine kill anyone else, he would do whatever it took to get Denise back safely. “You won’t lose her, Kaycee.” He whispered into her dark hair as he held her, he already knew how strong she was as a person. But right now, he didn’t want her to be strong, he hoped she would allow herself to feel her emotions and cry or lash out, whatever helped her at that moment in time. He was going to kill Valentine once and for all this time, he had hurt too many people, he didn’t deserve to keep his life. His fingers combed through her dark locks in hopes of comforting her, “I’m here for you. I’m always here for you,” He promised in another whisper, he loved Kaycee and it broke his heart seeing her so upset. It also made him angry that Valentine had targeted Denise, he had already killed his father but also Josee’s parents. It was enough.

---

Josee didn’t want Simon to see her upset and think she was weak, she hadn’t been fast enough, and he was in front of her before she could realise that he was right behind her. Looking at him, she realised that she could be vulnerable around him and he wouldn’t think any less of her. Closing her eyes as he wrapped his arms around her, a few more tears rolled down her cheeks as her arms found their way around his body. He would have been yet again confused about what was happening, it was probably all he has felt since meeting her. “He took them and now he has Denise, she… Kaycee’s parents took me in.” Her bottom lip trembled as she spoke, normally talking about her parents was somewhat easy now. She did miss them and thought of them every day, but she knew she couldn’t do anything to bring them back to her. Hearing that Valentine wasn’t dead and hadn’t been killed like she believed and now Denise’s life was in his grasp. It was too much for her and she couldn’t stop herself from breaking down, “He can’t… he can’t take her too, he can’t take anyone else from me.” Her voice cracked as she looked at Simon, she knew he wouldn’t be able to help them in saving Denise and she was glad, she didn’t want him anywhere near Valentine as she couldn’t lose him either. “They raised me with Kaycee, none of them deserve this. Kaycee needs her mother,” Her voice was barely there but she would make sure that she found Denise and brought her back safely.