Second Floor Common Room, Saturday Afternoon

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie was spending her Saturday the way she sent most Saturdays: studying. Hey, she hadn't been in any of her workshops this week due to her impromptu trip to Montreal. She had to catch up. Never mind that she'd been keeping up with her independent coursework even while at home, and catching up with taught workshops seemed to be limited to absently thinking that if she was going to miss a lecture on one of the seven deadly sins, lust was probably the right one to skip.

But whatever. She could still use this time on working on her Latin wordforms and reading ahead in Economics. And she could do it while sitting cross-legged on a couch in the common room, too. That was quite enough pretending to be social for her, especially since the previous week was still making her wary of specifically seeking people out.

There were some bags of tea and an empty cup on the counter in the kitchen area, but they seemed abandoned now. Natalie was drinking Pepsi.

[ooc: Open, duh!]

Comments

[whenshewasnice]

"Mmhmm," Natalie replied, as noncommittal as ever, resting her book in her lap, now. As if she'd had any chance of getting any reading done after he'd shown up. "A year's a pretty long time."

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"Think we'll get sick of each other before the end of it?" he asked.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie shrugged. "Who knows," she said, flicking her bangs aside with her fingertips. "The possibilities are endless. We might stay friends forever and braid each other's hair ––" Yeah, she was incapable of saying 'friends forever' without being sarcastic about it. You could blame Todd, or at least his absence. "–– or we might just get bored, or you might end up telling me no one loves me."

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"Now why would I say that?" Jace asked. "You've still got that boring roommate, don't you?"

He thought insulting Sam would distract Natalie from calling him out on his fake ignorance.

[whenshewasnice]

"My boyfriend, who you've never met." Natalie was not that easily distracted, though the correction came out idly. "And you know why you'd say that."

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

Almost anyone else and Jace would put in quite a bit of effort into defending his innocence, but he knew that wouldn't work with Natalie.

"As far as Alec knows no, I don't," Jace said. "And I'd like to keep it that way."

[whenshewasnice]

"I'm not rushing to have a heart to heart with him," Natalie replied dryly. She'd kicked the crap out of a guy who hadn't liked her in the first place. It didn't seem like the start of a beautiful friendship to her. "So I'm not going to get in the way of your lying."

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"See when you call it lying it makes it seem like a bad thing," Jace said. "It's not a bad thing."

[whenshewasnice]

"Lying's lying," Natalie said. She just liked calling things what they were. "I'm sure you have your reasons."

Actually, she was pretty sure she got them, too.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"I do," he said. "My relationship with Alec runs much more smoothly if he thinks I don't know that he's into guys."

[whenshewasnice]

"Or you, specifically." Which she figured might've been a bigger thing, even. "Well, I have no reason to meddle, so I won't blow your cover."

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"It's appreciated," he said dryly even though he meant it. "I do plan on telling him, someday. He's just not ready for it yet."

[whenshewasnice]

"Mm."

She had a couple of comments she was chose to keep to herself, there. She paused and slid her bookmark in place between the pages of her economics textbook instead, so she could close it.

"Guess the week was enough drama for everyone for a while, anyway."

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"Any of the drama manage to reach you?" Jace asked. He didn't really think much of Natalie's position last week. She had always struck him as the type to do what was needed to survive and that wasn't a problem with him. He thought it was smart.

Not that he'd personally do that. He had the reckless and stupid side of things well covered for the family.

[whenshewasnice]

"I was in Montreal for a few days." Was that a yes or a no? She cared not for clarity when it came to that. "Could have been worse, I guess."

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"You go to Montreal a lot," Jace noted. He didn't want to suggest she was running away because, like lying, that sounded like a bad thing even if people had good reasons for doing it.

[whenshewasnice]

"It's home," Natalie said, reaching out to grab her drink off the table, gesturing vaguely at him with the bottle before she went to open it. "And it has the best Pepsi."

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"Pepsi," Jace scoffed, making a face. "Coke is so much better."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie consulted the bilingual nutrition facts on the bottle. "I don't think I've ever seen a bottle of Coke with a plus two to intelligence. So, pass."

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

Jace shook his head. "I don't understand you half the time."

[whenshewasnice]

"Well, how could you? You just said you prefer Coke." Ooh, look at her cracking a joke, even if it was dry. She took a sip from the bottle. "Hasn't put you off yet. Neither here nor in other versions of this universe."

Evil versions. That was saying something.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"Well I never claimed to make wise decisions," Jace joked with a slight smile. "We were pretty impressive in that other universe, weren't we?"

[whenshewasnice]

"I think we probably impress enough in just about any universe," Natalie replied. Not boasting, just stating a fact. "But did you notice we were also almost exactly the same? Take away the brainwash and the blood and desire to hurt Alec, and that was us."

She hadn't quite decided what to think of that.

[liarallmyown.livejournal.com]

"Should we have been different?" he asked. "We aren't sociopaths or demons, for people like us good and evil is more a difference in beliefs than a desire to kill for fun."

Something about that reminded Jace of his father but he couldn't really place his finger on what it was exactly.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie shrugged a shoulder. "I don't know," she said. "Guess I was a little surprised."

And yet not as much as she may have hoped to be. It was kind of weird to not feel too horrified by not having been on the side of what most would perceive to be the 'good guys'.