seveninchmotto | The Institute, New York, Tuesday

Isabelle had been away from Idris for almost a month. Not by choice, of course, but because of duties in New York. Specifically, her mother had had to spend a little more time in Alicante.

Which had left Isabelle in charge of the Institute.

Not for the whole month, of course. Just a couple of days at a time, five in a row at most. But, still. It was a responsibility which Isabelle took very seriously, which meant that even when Maryse had been back in New York and in charge, Isabelle had stayed at the Institute, helping her mother and updating her on everything that had been going on. Not to mention learning things for her next bout of temporary leadership.

And to make up for her absence in Idris, Isabelle had of course sent Flick some letters. But, to really make up for it, she'd also made sure to send his phone a whole lot of alluring selfies - from the casually adorable to the downright dirty - knowing full well that he wouldn't see them until he made it out of Idris and to somewhere where mundie tech worked, at which point they would flood to his phone all at once. That was the point, see. To make him want to see her as soon as he saw all those photos that had accumulated over the past few weeks.

Except, there was a slight problem.

Okay, two.

One, Isabelle had no idea when Flick was going to get to come back to New York next.

Two, her version of New York was experiencing a truly outrageous heatwave that was testing even Isabelle's angel-given ability to withstand rough conditions. So she'd been feeling pretty gross for the past couple of days. The AC at their apartment had broken down this past weekend and no amount of threatening phonecalls seemed to be getting it fixed any quicker, while the Institute was starting to get uncomfortably warm as well. So as Isabelle sat behind her mother's desk at the Institute right now, hot selfies were the farthest thing from her mind. Instead, she was trying to find whether she needed anyone's official authorisation to cajole Magnus or another warlock into cooling the building down through supernatural means.

That was how bad this was getting.

[ooc: NFB, but open! This is me dealing with my own weather issues, omg.]

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"All right, so we should..." He laughed a little bit breathlessly. "We should plan on that, then? At some point soon?"

Isabelle kissed his hands again. And chuckled, quietly - almost as if she was a little dazed.

"Yeah," she said. "We should plan on a wedding, baby."

Okay, an elopement. Still!

"Yeah, we should plan on that," Flick said with a quiet laugh. It was kind of amazing to think it was going to happen and soon but there's nothing that Flick wants more.

"We can talk to my mom in a few days. I don't know if you want to tell anyone of your family but we shouldn't want too long to make this happen."

"My family doesn't need to know."

They'd get their Shadowhunter ceremony eventually, if things went the way they ought to. Her parents wouldn't see the point - probably - and her brothers could wait.

"So the only person we need to talk to is Beth."

"Okay," Flick said quietly, nodding. "Did you want to be there with me while I tell her or should I ask her on my own?"

Isabelle hesitated for a second, mulling it over. There were a couple of things she was thinking.

Nothing bad.

"I'd like to be there," she settled on. "Do you think she'd like that?"

"I think she would," Flick said with a quiet laugh. "I think she'd want to talk about it with you. I know it's going to be small but she's never gotten to see a wedding of any kind. I think she'll want to gossip."

Isabelle snickered, but there was a softness to it. "Well, I'm excellent at gossip." And so so modest about the silliest things. "You're right, though. As much as it pains me to say it, it's not going to be an extravagant thing."

It didn't pain her at all. This was about them, not some big show.

"You can still get a pretty dress," Flick reassured her. "And flowers and stuff. We're not going to do it all yet but you can still go shopping and everything. We don't have to do this in our jeans and tee shirts."

"But what if I want you in your jeans and tee shirt?"

She didn't.

"Do you?"

He doubted it.

"Sometimes?" she offered with a shrug and a little laugh. "Scruffy looks good on you. But not for this, no. I'm going to need you in a suit and tie that I can take off you later in the day."

"Then, I'll get a suit and you can go with my mom to get a dress because I'm sure she'll want to go with you," Flick said, nodding. "Since I doubt she thought this day would ever come for me no matter what she says."

"How long did it take you to think it would?"

Because it had taken her past the moment he'd first started talking about it.

"I didn't think it would," Flick said, shrugging. "I met you and I still wasn't sure since you didn't seem like the type. I wanted it but I was also happy to take whatever you were willing to give."

Way to make her look smitten, Flick. It was downright embarrassing how softly she was smiling at him saying that. Bordering on dopey.

"By the Angel, I love you," she said, and shook her head. "I think that's why I was willing to give you this." And by 'this', she meant 'forever'. "Because you were willing to let me be me."

When she'd been afraid of commitment, and even afraid to admit her feelings.

"Yeah well, it's kind of hard to resist you," Flick said though he looked fond and pretty smitten himself. "I would have been fine with anything you would have let me have. I would have wanted more, of course, but I loved you for the way you were and you didn't have to change for me."

Isabelle could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She blinked a few times, tried to fan them away with her hand.

"Okay, maybe I've worked in an overheated office for too long."

No, she was really just a fool in love and emotional over that.

Flick didn't draw attention to it other than picking up her hands and kissing them.

"Speaking of that, you're going to a hotel until I get someone over there to fix the a/c at the apartment," Flick told her. "You're not sleeping at the Institute. You're sleeping somewhere comfortable. All this money I inherited is going to do some good."

Isabelle squeezed his hands. "Thanks," she said, because she had zero argument left in her about that. She'd probably earned some hotel nights. "But what about you, baby? You're staying the night, right?"

She knew he probably couldn't spare more than just the one, but... She'd fight him to have the one, at least.

"I can stay one night, yeah," Flick told her, nodding. "I don't know why they give me as much leeway as they do when it comes to leaving but I try not to take advantage of it too much. I don't want someone telling me I can't leave anymore."

"Then I would just have to come visit you more." Even if her new schedule and responsibilities seemed to be likely to hinder her ability to do that, for a while. "But I don't want anyone to tell you that, either. I want you to come home."

She'd wanted that for a long time now.

"I'll get there," he promised, reaching over to pick up her hand and give it a kiss. "I will."

Hopefully not in a box of ashes but he'd get there.

"Come on, let's go find a hotel for you. You can choose where you go."

"Okay," Isabelle murmured. Look, she hadn't had much time or reason to be soft and open, lately. Now it was bleeding out whether she wanted to or not. "But you better prepare for a long night."

... Okay, that managed to sound dirty, even with all its fondness.

"That a promise?" Flick asked, grabbing her and moving to tug her out the door. He sure hoped it was a promise.

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