The Institute, New York, Sunday

[seveninchmotto]

Things in New York were at a standstill, and had been since the battle on the ship. They were all just waiting for the Clave to come to some kind of a decision about what they were going to do about Valentine.

Isabelle was pretty okay with the waiting. She was making use of the Institute's training room again, and even if she had to now rely mostly on her brothers for assistance and guidance since Hodge was gone, it was still better than the salle at the school. Also? The shopping was way better in New York. So she'd been doing that again today, and was now modeling her new stuff for Church.

The grey cat was probably only interested because she kept crouching down and giving him scritches every few moments.

[NFB, but open for calls and texts! *flops over*]

Comments

[flickofthewrist]

Well, someone was going to interrupt her modeling with a phone call. Hey, he was kind of bored and felt too lazy to entertain himself by going out and finding something to do in town.

So, he'd call Isabelle and bother her. Or talk to her. One or the other.

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle picked up her phone and answered the call without looking at the screen. There were only a few likely candidates for who it would be, anyway.

"Hello."

[flickofthewrist]

"Hey there," Flick said easily. "Am I interrupting anything?"

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle smiled at his voice. "A very important modeling moment."

From that, he was supposed to infer that he wasn't interrupting much.

[flickofthewrist]

"What is a very important modeling moment?" Flick wondered. "Are you in a store and checking yourself out in the mirror?"

[seveninchmotto]

"No, I'm at home." A beat. "And checking myself out in the mirror."

And showing off to the cat, but Church was kind of trying to go to sleep at the foot of her bed, now.

[flickofthewrist]

"Uh huh." He would never understand the need to model new clothes. Never ever. "You get some nice clothes then?"

[seveninchmotto]

He'd seen what she looked like in clothes that fit her, right? Who wouldn't want to look at that in the mirror?

It was a hobby for the self-centered, was what this narrative was getting at. "But of course. It was a very good shopping day for me."

[flickofthewrist]

"Sounds exciting," Flick said dryly because shopping was never going to be his favorite thing to do. "I am thrilled for you and your new clothes, Isabelle. Hope you're very happy together."

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle tsked at him. "You sound very unenthusiastic for someone who'll probably enjoy these clothes a lot."

[flickofthewrist]

"I probably will but the act of getting said clothes?" He groaned. "Not for me. Shopping is dull."

[seveninchmotto]

"You're incredibly wrong about that, but no one's about to force you to go shopping," she retorted at him. "Just appreciate them."

[flickofthewrist]

"And I will whenever I get to see them," he promised. "See, I can do that even if I'm so incredibly wrong."

He sounded a little bit sarcastic on those last two words.

[seveninchmotto]

"You are." And she was going to ignore his sarcasm because she didn't care about his opinion on this particular topic. "But at least you're seeing the light on the side of actually seeing the clothes on me."

[flickofthewrist]

"Yeah, yeah. I'm not a complete dummy," Flick told her, shaking his head. "I take it things are quiet there if you have time to go shopping? No emergencies?"

[seveninchmotto]

"The Clave's still figuring out what to do," she sighed, plopping herself down on her bed. Church gave her a look for disturbing his rest. "Until they do, we stay put."

[flickofthewrist]

"Or you go shopping," he pointed out. "How are you doing with everything?"

[seveninchmotto]

The shrug wasn't very illustrative. And even less so when he couldn't even see it.

"I'm fine."

That was pretty close to the truth, this time.

[flickofthewrist]

"S'good to hear," Flick told her sincerely. "Hope your Clave gets things going quickly so you're not sitting and waiting too long. I know how that can be."

[seveninchmotto]

"It's not that bad," she said, with another shrug. "I'm at home."

So at least she had various kinds of entertainment at her fingertips.

[flickofthewrist]

"I know you are," Flick told her, nodding. "Having fun there besides all the shopping you've been doing? Hanging out with your friends?"

[seveninchmotto]

"Well, Alec and Jace are here all the time..."

Had he not yet clued into the fact that she didn't actually have that many friends? Or, any.

[flickofthewrist]

"No other Shadowhunter friends in that place?" he asked curiously. "Just your family?"

[seveninchmotto]

"Sure, I guess, if you want to count the adults." Which she didn't. "But I wouldn't really call them friends."

[flickofthewrist]

"So, something I've always wondered," he started and this seemed like a good place to ask, "is why your Institute isn't stuffed full of Shadowhunters. Where is everyone?"