Distractions

Eighteen: Nobody Knows What's Happening

Jace stared blankly at her, but snapped into action when she said "put your shoes on" rather forcefully. He followed her out of the Institute and down the street to a place called Peoria Pizza Works* in silence.

He didn't say anything as she ordered a "medium pizza, half cheese with herbs and half pepperoni without herbs and a side of bread sticks please" and didn't say anything until they sat down in a booth towards the back of the restaurant.

"So we're siblings," said Everest suddenly. Jace paused, a slice of pizza half in his mouth.

He swallowed and said, "Apparently."

She hesitated, dipping her bread stick in marinara. "Does it change anything?"

Jace thought for a moment before shaking his head. "No. You're still Everest, my sister figure that's now actually my sister and not just my sister figure. You're still the kid I have to make sure eats and takes care of herself, and you're still the kid I'd do most anything for."

"I'm not a kid," she protested around her lunch, but she smiled too. "By the way, you're still my bitchy, yet lovable, big brother no matter what."

Jace rolled his eyes as he jabbed his pizza at her. "You better eat pizza too, not just bread sticks. You need protein so that you don't collapse on the mission."

Everest froze. "What mission?"

"You haven't talked to anybody today have you?" She shrugged and he sighed. "We think we found the warlock who can wake up your mom."

Everest didn't say anything about how Jace didn't call Jocelyn his mom too; she knew how it felt to not think of a person as your parent. After all, she felt the same way about Valentine.

"How...fun. When do we have to leave for that?"

Jace checked his phone. "Fifteen minutes. Which means we're eating on the go."

Everest pouted but waved over a waiter with the practiced ease of someone who grew up eating in restaurants often and asked for a to-go box. Minutes later, Everest and Jace were walking down the streets of New York with a box of pizza and bread sticks in their hands as they tried to balance the box, eat their lunch, and make it to the Institute in one piece all at the same time.

"Ha!" Everest shouted as they entered the building. "We did it!"

Jace laughed. "Us one, streets zero."

Clary and Magnus stared at the siblings with wide eyed, slightly disturbed, expressions.

"I don't wanna know," muttered Clary.

"I don't know if I want to," whispered Magnus.

"You don't," Clary assured him. He looked as if he agreed, especially when Jace and Everest grinned wildly as they finished off their lunch.

...

"Where are we?" Everest asked, staring around at the fields and flowers around them. She wanted her notebook or laptop so she could write a description piece about it all.

"London. Ragnor's house is just across these fields," Magnus explained.

"Let's make this quick. We'll talk to Ragnor and Portal him back to the Institute before anyone knows we're gone," Jace said in a huff. Everest frowned. She had thought that the pizza had cheered him up.

"So, brother and sisters, huh?" Magnus said after a moment of silence.

"I don't want to talk about it," snapped Jace. Maybe the pizza hadn't cheered him up that much.