Roommates & Soulmates

Simon's Reason

"Don't go," Izzy whined.

"I have work," Simon explained.

"I'll pay you to say," she said. Simon laughed lightly and got up.

"I'll see you at Alec's later," Simon said as got up to look for clothes.

"I need a kiss before you go," Izzy argued. Simon sighed as if this was a burden, but made his way, smiling, to the bed. He leaned over and kissed her lips with the intention of leaned back after. Izzy had other ideas. She wrapped her arms around him, deepened the kiss, and stole a few more before finally letting him free.

"Thief," Simon told her grinning.

"Totally worth it," Izzy said as she snuggled more comfortably into the blankets.

"Alright, now I'll see you later," Simon smiled, his work clothes in hand he managed to get out of the room before she distracted him again.

Izzy had always liked to hang out at her brother's apartment between classes or on weekends, but she'd the frequence had greatly increased since Christmas. Before he'd been officially dating Isabelle, Simon had known Magnus only through Clary, but now as Magnus was engaged to his girlfriend's brother, Simon was getting to know him better. Or at least Simon had been spending a lot of time lately watching Magnus hang out with his girlfriend.

Before arriving for his shift, Simon sent a quick text to Clary, asking her how it had gone with Jace. After three hours of serving coffee and making breakfast sandwiches, he got a break and checked his phone.

'Jace says he has faith we can make it,' Clary's text read. 'We are gonna do long distance. I'm telling my professor yes on Monday.'

'Do you want me to keep an eye out for strange blondes hitting on him?' Simon texted back. He didn't get an answer before his break ended, but after Simon's shift, he returned to his phone to see a reply.

'Nah,' Clary texted. 'I trust him. Everything's going to be fine. You'll see.'

'I'm glad you're so confident,' Simon replied as he left work to head home and change, and by home, he meant his actual apartment rather than his girlfriend's. He had some clothes at Izzy's, but not his shampoo. Then again, they were both so close to campus it hardly made a difference really. When he arrived home, Simon saw Clary and Jace sitting very close together on the couch watching tv. He smiled, but didn't do more than wave to them as he went down the hall to the bathroom.

Once he was clean and dressed in clothes that didn't smell like coffee, Simon headed out to meet up with Izzy. Even though it was a short walk, Simon still bundled up in his full winter gear, mittens and all. It was January, and the weather wasn't quite ready to give up on winter yet, even if Simon totally was. When he knocked, it was Alec who answered the door.

"Hey," Alec greeted him before moving aside to let Simon enter. "You'll never guess what they are up to?"

"Watching Poldark?" Simon chuckled.

"Ding ding," Alec said sarcastically. "We have a winner." Then he added in a more cheerful tone. "Though I do much prefer this to before."

"You mean when all they did was yell at each other?" Simon replied.

"Oh no!" Magnus's yelling voice carried across the room. "He isn't really going to- I mean what about his wife?"

"Now they yell at the tv," Alec laughed, turning to join the new friends in the living room.

"She's his first love," Izzy was explaining to Magnus. "He's having a stupid moment."

"How can you be so calm?" Magnus asked her, looking rather out of sorts himself.