Johanna tapped her fingers on the window ceil lightly as she watched the rain trickle down in small crystals onto the glass. The pain was beginning to creep back slowly into her skull but she was starting to get used to it. She also hadn't gotten much sleep in between her fight with Alec, and Jace bursting into her room not long after, to call her into the library to device battle plans for whatever scheme he had concocted up again, in order to save Clary's mom, or rather, their mom, but Johanna wasn't quite ready for that yet, for now, she was just Clary's mom.
Johanna gave a quick glance over at a very unhappy Alec seated on the couch next to his sister, Isabelle. It was clear he hadn't gotten much sleep either, hopefully the guilt of being such an asshat to her had kept him up. She had hoped he would have at least tried to apologize by now, because even though she still held some sort of resentment from earlier, she seemed to feel tremendously out of place around here without Alec helping her out, but she was too prideful to be the bigger person and approach him, living with a pack of egotistical werewolves will do that to you. Jace wasn't helping either, waking everyone up in the middle of the night to go on another dangerous and reckless mission, as Alec had put it. Johanna was game of course, but only because Alec had disapproved of it, which got her a very disdainful glare from him. She wasn't going to lie, a part of her actually felt accomplished. Does that make her a bad person? She thought to herself.
That, and a terrible friend. Ithuriel spoke up.
"Hey, whose side are you on?" She silently snapped back.
"Ok, Simon said he'll do it." Clary said excitedly, pushing her fiery hair from her eyes.
"Great." Alec replied sarcastically, earning a sharp jab in the ribs from his sister.
"Let's get geared up and meet at the elevator in ten." Jace added, ignoring Alec's comment.
Everyone gave their affirmations and began to exit the room.
Johanna made her way sluggishly down the hallway, hopefully the adrenaline of the mission would wake her up because at the moment, she was feeling like a bag of bricks.
"Johanna." A familiar voice came from behind her as she reached her door. Alec stopped an oddly far distance from her with his hands stuffed into his pajama pockets. Had he finally come to make things right? She thought wishfully.
"Yeah?" She said flatly, not wanting to show the relief that she was feeling.
"I don't think you should come." He stated, draining every ounce of relief from her body. So much for wishful thinking. She thought.
"Let me guess, I'll just get in your way?" She said, rolling her eyes.
Alec made a pained face, as if Johanna's assumption had hurt him somehow.
"Anything could happen that could reveal what you are, not only to the others, but to the enemy. It could get back to Valentine and then…"
"And then what?" She snapped sharply. "Take me? Wouldn't that just make you happy?"
Johanna had expected some long angry reply, ending in Alec stomping away dramatically to his room, but instead he let out a long defeated sigh.
"I know what you're doing." He replied. "You're not the only one around here who does stupid stuff just to get back at me." Alec smiled a small knowing smile.
"Right, I forget you're the only one around here who makes rational decisions." She barked back.
"Look, just…Please don't put yourself in danger just because you're mad at me." He said oddly cool.
"I'm not putting myself in danger to make you angry." She scoffed. "I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do."
Dishonesty is not a very nice trait Johanna. Ithuriel scolded.
"Shuuushhhh." She growled subconsciously.
"But you know, if you really wanted to help me, you'd stop being such a jerk, and help me make sure that doesn't happen."
Alec stared intensely into her eyes for a moment, seemingly contemplating her words. Johanna had forgotten how piercing blue his eyes were, sharp and cold, almost like the color of ice. She could see how they could be beautiful when they weren't being used to stare through your soul with spine shivering intimidation. She wondered how they looked to Magnus, if Alec cared about him as much as he said he did, than she was sure he had seen them in a different light.
"Fine." He finally said with a sigh. "Get ready and meet me in my room, we will see how the runes affect you before we meet up with the others."
"Ok." Johanna said, sounding more surprised than she would have liked before disappearing behind her door.
Alec put on his last piece of gear, carefully strapping the leather bracer onto his arm, securing it tightly. He had run to the armory to grab his quiver and bow, as well as the one he had given Johanna yesterday. He still felt guilty by the way he had snapped at her earlier, but maybe helping her on her first mission would help him get back into her good graces. It still bothered him how much he actually cared that he was in her good graces, but what didn't lately? He had finally decided last night to not let those things get to him so much, maybe he was overreacting, who knows, but he really didn't need to think about all that right now.
Suddenly a small tap came at the door.
"Come in." He called, and Johanna's head popped slowly into the doorway.
"You're not going to throw me out again are you?" She asked.
"No." Alec sighed, "Just come in and shut the door."
Johanna complied, doing what he had said. He had to admit, she did look the shadowhunter part. Her dark wavy hair faded smoothly into the black top she was wearing, and her jeans, of the same color, hugged her body nicely, showing off the slight curve of her hips.
"Alec?" She questioned, breaking him from his thoughts. "We going to do this or what?"
"Right." He said, grabbing his stele. "We will start with the healing iratze, its simple and small, but, we will have to do it somewhere you can conceal it just in case you have some sort of reaction to it."
Johanna furrowed her brow in contemplation. It had become easy for Alec to tell when she was talking to the angel.
"What is he saying?" Alec asked.
Johanna shook her head as if to jiggle the angel out.
"He's not certain what they could do either." She replied nervously.
"Well," Alec said, lifting his stele. "I guess there is only one way to find out."
Johanna sighed, lifting the edge of her shirt uneasily.
Alec noticed the small paw print below her naval, I sign most likely of the loyalty she had for her werewolf family. The memory of Emmanuel dangling from the arch demon's grasp, flashed through Alec's mind. He had almost forgotten. It made him feel all that much guiltier for the way he treated her earlier. She had lost someone important to her, someone who had taken her in, and treated her as one of his own, even though it was against werewolf law. She loved him, was devoted to him, he was her true father, and now he was gone, and she was thrust into this world not knowing what was ahead of her, and for some reason, she had risked her life for him, weakened herself to make sure he got to come back to his family. She saw him as someone she could rely on, someone she could trust, and he treated her like utter crap just to prove a point to himself.
Somehow Johanna reminded him of Jace, strong, loyal, and dedicated. Maybe that's why he found himself so attracted to her. Sure, there were other female shadowhunters with those qualities, he knew more badass female shadowhunters than he knew males, but something was different about Johanna, something drew him to her way more than he'd ever been drawn to a girl before and it bothered him. Of course she was beautiful, but Alec was never a sucker for outside beauty like Jace was.
"Any day now." Johanna said, pulling him from his thoughts. Alec felt his face burn a bright red as his hand hovered lightly over the bare skin of her hip.
"Right." He replied quietly as he began to draw the curving lines of the rune. Johanna gritted her teeth, as Alec slid the stele over her skin carefully.
"It might sting a bit." He said, taking in her pained features.
"Thanks for the heads up." She growled sarcastically through her clenched teeth.
"There." Alec said, taking a step back to admire his handy work.
Johanna looked down at the dark swirling lines.
"What now?" She asked, although Alec wasn't sure if she was speaking to him or Ithuriel.
"We wait." He finally decided to say, as he carefully began to place freshly runed arrows into his quiver.
"Here." He said, handing Johanna the bow and quiver he had gotten for her earlier.
Johanna took it, examining the ornate designs carved into the shaft of the bow.
"Do you think I can do it?" She asked, throwing the quiver onto her shoulder.
Alec let out a small laugh.
"You killed an archdemon, I think you can handle a few forsaken."
"This is different." She sighed. "I was fighting for our lives, for…for his life, what if I can't do it now?"
Alec contemplated for a moment. He could hear the fear and uncertainty in her voice as she nibbled her bottom lip nervously.
"You're going to do just fine." He smiled reassuringly.
Johanna looked at him oddly, as if he hadn't made any sense.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" She asked. "Are you sick or something? Should I be concerned?"
Alec rolled his eyes, "You know I did feel sort of guilty about last night, but now I'm starting to remember why."
"Oh," Johanna said, her eyes wide in mock surprise. "I'm sorry, was that you trying to apologizing, because if it is, then I totally missed the "I'm sorry" part."
"You're unpleasable ." Alec muttered.
"Aaaand you're an ass, but, I guess neither of us can help what we are, can we?" Alec was uncertain if she was joking with him or not, it was hard to tell by the smug look on her face, but then again, she had a good poker face.
"Let's just check your rune already so we can get this over with." He sighed, lifting the edge of her shirt carefully to reveal the dark curves of the healing rune.
"Seems to be reacting just fine." He said, pulling out his stele and running it over the rune to activate it. The healing iratze glowed a deep red, then faded shortly afterwards, with no wound present to heal.
"Looks like it's going to be just fine."
"Dang," Johanna sighed sarcastically. "And here I was hoping they'd light me up like a Christmas tree."
Alec gave her a smug look, before the sound of the door creaking open startled him.
"Alec are you…" Isabelle stopped as she saw the scene before her. "I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?" She said, a small smile creeping onto her face.
Alec dropped the edge of Johanna's shirt like it was on fire, and quickly stumbled back onto his feet.
"No," He said coolly. "I was just helping Johanna with her runes."
"Right, well Simon is here, so we are heading out now."
"Yeah, be right there." He said, grabbing his bow, and throwing the quiver over his shoulder. "Let's get this over with." He mumbled to Johanna, getting a knowing nod in return as they quickly followed Isabelle down the hall.