After City of Heavenly Fire

Extra: Sizzy

"Throw me a bottle?" Simon asked exasperatedly, bouncing his daughter Sara, now a few months old, in his arms. Her crying had set off her sisters and now the room was thrumming with the din.

Izzy fought to try and quieten Kirsten and Harper but was getting nowhere, "Milk or blood?"

"Blood," Simon drew back Sara's top lip, "Her fangs are coming through again."

Izzy tossed him a baby bottle of thick crimson liquid, the nozzle stained a faded burgundy from past uses.

Simon caught it without looking up and Sara latched on greedily as soon as it was within reach, eyes closing and looking almost normal as her golden irises were not on show. Almost normal, the rivulet of blood trickling down her chin painted a very different picture.

Izzy checked Harper's gums and found tiny, pearlescent fangs peaking out from the soft pink flesh. The triplets drank blood once or twice a month when their fangs would begin to appear, showing them to be hungry for something a little stronger than milk.

Izzy uncapped a bottle and Harper fell into the same blissful oblivion as Sara, fangs slipping back into place when touched by the blood, thirst sated.

Izzy was fumbling for a third bottle for Kirsten, still screaming blue murder at being the only one without a one, when the door opened a few inches.

A blue-eyed, black-haired boy peered around, surveying the scene before him. Simon and Izzy sat cross-legged in a bomb site of baby related things, an electric blanket heaped beside Izzy, bottles of white and red liquid nestled inside it.

He had come up because he had heard the babies' noise and it upset him to think of Kirsten unhappy. He had looked after her before when his amity had been taken and now he took it as his duty to see that she never had reason to cry.

"Come on then, Raphael." Izzy nodded to Kirsten, still bottleless in her lap.

Raphael leaned over Kirsten and she fell silent, her golden eyes flashing bright at the sight of him.

Raphael settled at Izzy's side and she eased Kirsten into his lap. He reached for the bottle Izzy had struggled with and began to feed Kirsten, beaming when she took it with no fuss and calmed into a sleepy rhythm.

"She loves you, you know." Simon whispered.

Raphael kissed her forehead, her eyelids flickering open slightly at his touch.

Later...

Izzy lay on the bed with her hands over her face, raven hair fanning out around her head like a dark halo.

Simon closed the heavy wooden door behind him with the barest of clicks.

"Hey." Izzy said with as much power as she could muster- which was very little. The words came out as barely a whisper, a rustle of leaves, a baby's breath.

"Clary and Jace said they'd settle them."

Izzy breathed a sigh of relief, fingers remaining a cage that concealed her features.

The frame creaked as Simon sat by Izzy's head, she groaned softly.

"I could sleep for week." Her voice was muffled behind her palms.

Simon prised her fingers away slowly and she stared at him through heavily lidded eyes. He felt the dark circles under her eyes with his thumbs and then proceeded to touch every single blemish on her entire face that had been created by sleep deprivation.

First the discolouration around her eyes, then the crease between her eyebrows from the way she was squinting against the dim light. Next the faint lines on her forehead, then the blush that had risen to her cheeks. The stray wisps of hair that fell across her chin, the pinkness at the tip of her nose. He moved to the white scars on her neck, across her collarbone and to her shoulders, remnants of runes, ghosts of battles, flickers of memories.

He stopped on her upper arm where a rune he knew so well, one that held maybe the most important memories, a rune not faded but with inky lines still full, a rune he had two of himself.

Set me as a seal upon thine arm...

Izzy was suddenly awake, hand slipping up the loose material of his shirt and to another copy of the same rune.

Set me as a seal upon thine heart...

Her other hand went to his upper arm, she joined his two wedded union runes with herself and he did the same back, breaking the contact only to draw her top over head so that the rune over her heart was visible.

He leaned to kiss her and their lips touched, a gentle pressure and nothing more, fatigue had ebbed but now it rushed back, a tsunami made up of the last few months.

Simon felt the tiredness keenly and lay down beside Izzy, hands still on each other's runes. Izzy's eyes fluttered shut and before long she was asleep, head tucked neatly under Simon's chin. Within moments he joined her, more than glad for the chance to rest and the chance to be alone together.

They slept like that, set upon each other's arms and upon each other's hearts, never breaking the contact even when oblivious to the world.