Birthdays had always been Isaac's favorite. It didn't matter whose it was, he loved it. Isaac loved his dad's because the older he got the closer he came to death. He loved his own because it was one year closer to becoming eighteen. Now, it was Clary's eighteenth birthday.

The Lahey boy had been living with the Fray's for about two years now, meaning that he was nineteen. Over the course of those years he learned what a good family looked like, what a normal, natural friendship was like, and more control. Even though he did have good control over his werewolf side when he lived at Beacon Hills, it wasn't as great as Scott's.

Isaac still struggled with minor anger issues back at that prison. Now, he could get angry and he wouldn't become a wolf. He felt proud of himself and the life he lived here. He hadn't become any closer in finding out about his family, but Isaac didn't really care because felt like he had a family with Jocelyn, Luke, and Clary.

Although Isaac didn't really like Simon, Clary's best friend, he sat with him at a local café waiting for Clary. She was great at drawing and painting, basically art, and had wanted to get into The Brooklyn Academy of Art, and today was her interview for getting in.

The two didn't speak, they sat in a silence that wasn't awkward, just unwanted. Simon didn't know why Isaac didn't like him, but never really asked, causing them to sit in an uncomfortable silence for Simon and a needed silence for Isaac. Simon reminded him of Stiles, a somewhat friend of his back in Beacon Hills, except Simon wasn't as twitchy. There wasn't an unresolved hatred of Stiles Stilinski, it was a guilt for leaving them to deal with all the supernaturals who were drawn there while Isaac lived a normal human life across the country.

Finally, after about thirty minutes of thinking, Clary walked in with a slight frown on her face. Her heart was beating, signaling to Isaac that she was excited. The girl walked over to the table, still frowning.

"Give me the professors' name and I-I will end them." This caused both Clary and Isaac to look over at him. Clary with surprise, and Isaac with a look of trying not to laugh.

Isaac, who had been holding in his laughter, finally let it out. "You and I both know that I could do more damage to them than you, glasses."

Simon and Clary glared at him, before turning back to each other. "You know, with a scaffolding email to the dean."

Clary tried hard to smile while Isaac continued to chuckle. "An email? So scary."

The redhead scoffed. "Don't bother," she then placed a letter between the two of them. CONGRADULATIONS, it read in big, red letter. Isaac smirked, knowing that she was going to get in.

"What?" Simon looked down before looking up at Clary again. "Sad face? Really?" Both laughed, Clary because she fooled him and Isaac because he was fooled. "Well played, well played."

"Thank you. You know, it's weird." Isaac looked over at her, afraid she would say something about demons or the supernatural. "They kind of liked my assigned work, but they flipped out over the drawings for our graphic novel." The blonde let out a breath that he was holding, glad that they still had a little time left.

Simon smiled at chuckled. "You're welcome."

"This day will go down in history as the greatest eighteenth birthday I ever had." Isaac wanted to be happy for her, but he knew that it would get worse either today or tomorrow, which caused him to mutter to himself, "or the worse."

"Which is why we are celebrating tonight," Simon added on to Clary's previous statement. He then to turned to Isaac, "Yes, with Maureen, after our show."

It wasn't that Isaac didn't like Maureen. She was a very nice young lady, it was just that the music almost made his ears bleed it was so bad. And the names? Don't get Isaac started about the names for the band they choose. And Isaac always knew that if Maureen was around, her and Simon were going to sing. "Absolutely," was the only thing that passed Isaac's lips.

"So, what's the deal with you and Maureen?" Clary asked her friend, knowing that Maureen had a major crush of Simon.

Simon, being oblivious to said crush, waved it away. "What deal? No dead. We sing together."

Clary chuckled at her friend's ability to look pass it. "You seriously don't know she's been crushing on you this whole time?"

This caused Simon to stammer over his words. "What? No. No."

"Simon, who can someone as smart and perceptive as you not realize that the person sitting right there is in love with you?" Isaac chuckled at Clary's unconsciousness of Simon's crush on her, but it also made the topic pretty awkward for all three of them, even if they didn't realize it.

"I guarantee you I'm not the only smart, perceptive person to make that mistake." Even if Clary didn't know what Simon was talking about her, Isaac did.

Isaac daydreamed a little more of the time Simon would tell her that he liked her, until he realized that Clary was looking down at the table. At first glance, he thought she was just thinking, until he was the sketch of the biscotti on the table. He gulped, knowing that Jocelyn would need to know about that.

Simon had noticed as well as Isaac. "That's a latte," he broke Clary out of her trance.

"But I could have sworn that I had a biscotti," She muttered, but both of the boys' could hear her.

"Maybe you ate it really fast and didn't even notice," Simon suggested, but neither agreed to the statement. He then continued, "Happens to me all the time. When I'm happy...when I'm sad."

His rambling made Clary laugh, making to lovesick boy smile at himself. "But I will replace your mythical biscotti with an actual one," Isaac could tell that Clary only saw this as a friendly gesture, but to Simon, it was a sign of his liking for her.

"Thank you."

"You know what?" Isaac finally said. "Here's to you."

"L'chaim." The friends said with each other, while Isaac said, "L'chamber!"

"Dammit, Isaac!"

•••

"Hey, Dot." Clary greeted the warlock as both her and Isaac walked into the antique shop.

Dot looked up at her and smiled. "Hey!"

"How's the future looking?" Clary put her elbows on the counter that Dot was at, while Isaac stood off the side.

"Not as good as yours." The young adult woman said smoothly.

Isaac chuckled at this, "Well, Clary does have a magical future. I'm not surprised that hers is better than yours, you old hag." Both of the girls knew Isaac was joking, he never was one to be mean, but Dot still nudged him in the gut, causing the werewolf to groan and hold his stomach in pain.

"Hmm," Clary nodded her head. Both the teenagers knew that Dot's next statement would have something to do with tarot cards and the art school.

"The tarot cards tell me you got into the advanced program." Isaac chuckled a little, guessing right.

"And by 'the tarot cards,' you mean, 'Simon's Twitter account'?" Clary insinuated.

Dot smiles and nods. "Okay, I follow him," she cracked. Clary smiled and made an 'mmm' noise. "Turns out, predicting the future with tarot cards is very complicated."

"Then don't use them," Isaac shrugged his shoulders, trying the help with Dot's predicament. "Why waste time on something that doesn't work?"

The warlock on shakes her head at his comment. "But, I do see a birthday present in your future."

"Dot!" Clary exclaimed, not wanting anyone to spend money on her.

The older girl only giggles at the younger's excitement and disbelief. "Okay, open it." She brought out a gift bag from under the table.

Clary did, eventually finding a shirt under all the paper. "Wow!"

This caused Dot to smile proudly, glad that Clary liked her present. "Yeah, you might want to keep that on the DL, cause your mom's my boss and I don't want her to flip out.

"Yeah, but that's how I know it's cool." This caused everyone, even Isaac, to chuckle. "You know, you're way better at gift-giving than magically predicting the future."

"Nothing magical about it. I just buy the clothes I wanna wear." She paused for a moment, remembering something. "Happy birthday."

"I love you, Clary."

"I love you, too."

Isaac looked between those two. "Wait, how come Clary got a birthday gift and I didn't. I mean, two months ago I didn't get anything from you. I am feeling very unloved right now."

This caused Clary to chuckle at her somewhat brother. "I love you too, Isaac. You good now."

"Well I'm better, but I wouldn't say that I'm good," he grumbled in response. Dot sighed deeply, she was going to miss moments like these.

Clary, being the perceptive person that she was, noticed the sad sigh from Dot. "You okay?"

"Yeah." She gave a fake chuckle, trying to get Clary's mood back up. "Yeah, happy birthday. Go up and see your mom."

So Clary did. She smiled and started to walk up the stairs, but Isaac stayed behind a bit. "You know that she needs to learn about everything, right?'

Dot nodded sadly, wishing that the day wouldn't come. Dot cared deeply for Clary, all three of them did, and her knowing that they lied to her would kill the redhead. So this birthday was not something that any of them looked forward to. "I just- I don't want her to change or get hurt."

Isaac gave the woman a sympathetic look. "I know, and I'll protect her." With those words said, Isaac followed Clary up the stairs. It reminded him of the first time he walked in here, looking for Jocelyn. Now that he lived here, nothing has changed. He knew got any closer to finding out who his parents really were, but that didn't seem to bother Isaac anymore. He didn't need his real family, he had the Frays', and sometimes Dot.

"Mom!" Isaac heard Clary say to Jocelyn.

"You did it! Yay!" They both laughed, knowing as well that Jocelyn follows Simon.

"You also follow Simon?" At this point, Isaac had made it upstairs and was in the living room with them.

"He only has 92 followers. He needs the retweets." She defended herself against Clary. "Congratulation."

Clary laughs at her mom. "Thank you. Hashtag, stalker mom." Isaac laughed at Clary's comment.

Jocelyn got up from Clary, finding the gift bag that she wanted, before placing it in Clary's lap. "Happy birthday."

Clary dug through this bag, much like the other, only to find something she'd never seen. Clary, to say the least, was very confused about her mother's present for her.

"It's called a stele." Jocelyn explained a little, but it didn't help Clary.

She continued to look at it and waved it a little in the air. "What is it, like, a paperweight?"

The oldest Fray shook her head. "No, it's much more than that." Isaac, already knowing about everything, took a seat on the couch and watched the show.

"It's very ancient." He added. "Like you, Jocelyn."

Fume came out of Jocelyn's nostrils, mad with Isaac's comment. "I want you to have it. It's a family heirloom." It wasn't actually an heirloom, but Clary didn't need to know that just yet. Soon, Clary would train to become a Shadowhunter, and all of them would help, but Isaac dreaded that day. Innocent, young Clary that Isaac knew would be gone and replaced with a fighter. But Isaac would always have the memories of her, and that would just have to be enough.

Clary chuckled, not believing her mother. "We Frays have heirlooms?"

"A few."

"You know, it's weird." Clary started, looking around at Isaac and Jocelyn. "I doodled something that looked like this this morning. I must have seen this about the house somewhere."

Isaac looked at Jocelyn, while she just sighed and closed her eyes. "Honey, I need to-" She started, only to cut off by Clary's phone ringing.

"Simon. He's on his over." Clary explained herself. The blonde boy sighed and rubbed his temples, Simon just had to come right then. Today was important, right then was important.

"Really?" Isaac was annoyed. "Right now? Clary, you should really sit back down, this is urgent!" He grabbed Clary's wrist, but she shrugged out of his grip. She was confused on why this was important, it was only her eighteenth birthday. That was to her though, to everyone else it was the day that would seal the girl's fate.

"But we need to talk." Clary's mother tried to grab her attention, but it was already gone.

"I can't right now. I gotta change, I'm going to see Champagne Enema tonight."

"What?" Jocelyn was confused, who was Champagne Enema?

"Yeah, I know. It's the new band name." Isaac said with disgust laced in his voice. No one liked the band name except Simon. Maureen hated it, confessing it to the nineteen year old a few nights ago, but said she liked it because of her love for the boy. He had tried to change Simon's mind, but nothing seemed to get through to him.

"But Simon and Maureen, along with Isaac, are taking me out after." She smiled at him, causing him to gag a little.

"But it's-it's your eighteenth birthday, and uh," Jocelyn sighed, "everything's gonna change for you now."

Clary chuckled at her mom. "Mom, we've had the talk. I'm good." She thought her mother was talking about sex and how to have safe sex, but the other two in the room knew about the real talk that needed to happen.

"We need to have a much different and more important talk." Jocelyn tried desperately to get her daughter to listen.

"And we will," Clary tried to please her mom, "but can it be over breakfast, all right?" Jocelyn nodded, defeated. "I love you. Thank you for the heirloom."

"I love you." Jocelyn plopped herself down on the couch. She sighed and looked at Isaac, silently asking why it was so hard.

He wanted to say something useful to her, give her the advice she needed, but he couldn't. Isaac didn't know what it was like for Jocelyn, keeping this huge secret only to have to come clean years later, but to no avail. He never had to explain anything to anyone, at least not like this, so he had no experience in the area.

Isaac lied down next to her. "Joc, I know you probably don't want to hear this, but she's like you."

She rolled her eyes at Isaac. "I know, Isaac, alright?'

Shaking his head, Isaac looked at her. "No, no. I mean- well, I didn't mean like that. I mean, earlier today she had a bicotti and then suddenly, there was a sketch of a biscotti on the table." Isaac make hand gestures during this, trying to explain more of what happened to Jocelyn.

Her head fell onto his shoulder, letting out a noise to complain. "Dear god," Jocelyn groaned. "I just wanted to protect her."

Isaac took her hand out of comfort. "I know," he whispered to her. The teenager placed a kiss on her forehead, not out of any feelings for her - but to ease her worries the best her could. Isaac hated that he couldn't do anything, he couldn't make everything better for Jocelyn or Dot, and he couldn't protect Clary anymore. He had to let her go, and all he could do was help and watch, not protect.

His mind raced to Allison, the girl he tried to forget everyday. We protect those who can't protect themselves, that was her code - and his code now. Soon Clary would be able to protect herself, she wouldn't need Isaac anymore, and all he wanted was to be needed.

And that was life for him now. Comforting Jocelyn when she needed it and protecting Clary from her destiny. He didn't mind it, it was normal. Or as normal as life could be for him.

•••

dedicated to -barrysallen- for being an amazing lil bean.

also, not everything will be correct for who says what, so please acknowledge that, and the fact that i don't edit these before i publish. but besides that, the first chapter is up!!! i am so excited for this!

anyways, over 2000 words for one chapter, this is definitely one of the longest chapters i have written here on wattpad. i am so proud of myself.