Chapter Text
James felt giddy. His hands were shaking from the excitement of the preparations. It felt absolutely nothing like his previous wedding. Nothing at all.
He had dragged Matthew into the ballroom after his fathers spoiling of his surprise and politely asked him to remove his shoes. To which Matthew outright refused. James had simply rolled his eyes, bent down, and began removing them himself. Matthew simply looked curious after that.
Now, James was walking with a barefooted Matthew to the back of the institute where the music room normally lies. Normally.
Not that this is quite a normal occasion. James removed his shoes outside the door, making sure to stack them neatly next to the several other pairs of shoes laid about in the hallway.
Matthew blanched. “James. Whatever is the meaning of this?” He looked again at the pile of shoes and shook his head in disbelief. “Whatever is going on? Why did I have to take my shoes off in the ballroom?”
James simply smiled. He hadn't been seeing much of Matthew recently and had been looking forward to an excuse to drag him about. That was one of the main reasons he had asked Cordelia to move their wedding forward. She hadn't even questioned it, stating simply that she was just as excited as he, and would love more than anything to have their wedding-do-over as soon as possible. He kissed her gratefully after that.
Now, Matthew looked so utterly confused that James was tempted to laugh. Matthew had been a bit separated from the rest of his friends for a few weeks now. He had already postponed his voyage for something that “came up” apparently. James did not question it. After Belial and Tatiana, they had all been going through a lot. Matthew especially so.
He had always used the bottle as his way to cope, but without it, he seemed to retreat to other resources. James didn't know if he even wanted to know what those resources could be. At least, James thought, he had Cordelia. And Lucie and his parents. Matthew was still repairing his relationships with his family, as well as Cordelia. He knew it was unfair of him to be asking Matthew to spend time with all of them when he wasn't on good terms with half the people they had befriended. Grace, Alastair, Cordelia. James had even invited Charles in hopes of possibly swaying the man's opinions in the right direction (of course, Cordelia had thoroughly lectured him that Charles should never be invited or welcome at any event where her brother may be present, considering certain circumstances).
On the other hand, James had also finally begun to see the old Matthew appear. The one who used to laugh and make jokes back before they were kicked out of the Shadowhunter Academy. Matthew just seemed so much brighter and James couldn't help but want to be a part of it. Part of what makes him smile and laugh and look like an idiot as he bends down to smell a pair of shoes.
James laughed as Matthew scrunched up his nose. “These are clearly Thomas’, whatever is he doing, misplacing his shoes?”
James raised an eyebrow, “how could you possibly tell those were Thomas’ by the smell?!”
Matthew considered it for a second before replying slowly, “I didn't. The fact that these shoes belong to our good friend Thomas can be simply deduced from the fact of the sheer size of the shoes themselves. The smell really doesn't have much to do with it.”
James doubled over in a sudden fit of laughter, “Then why, my dear parabatai, did you feel the need to smell the shoes?!”
James laughed harder at Matthews scrunched brow. “I don't really know.” He seemed to think of something and grinned wildly. “I suppose I gave into the intrusive thoughts.”
“Intrusive thoughts?!?!” James cackled, he had never heard Matthe talk like that before. It was an interesting expression. Matthew simply sighed dramatically and waved his hand around the air in a strange gesture.
“I'm simply ahead of my time.” He stated plainly, to which James snorted and rolled his eyes.
“Of course you are, Matthew, of course you are.”
Before Matthew could open his mouth to retort, the door to the music room cracked open, revealing Lucie standing on the other side. She nodded enthusiastically at Matthew before turning to James, “Are you boys going to come in or keep rambling? We've been waiting forever!”
James rolled his eyes at his little sister. Her hair was sticking up widely in her updo from running around all morning like him and her clothes looked slightly stained as well, but her grin was just as mischievous as he always remembered it being. He was just about to argue that it hadn't been a minute and that she was exaggerating excessively, when Matthew bumped his shoulder with a smirk.
He nodded his head and flounced forwards into the Music room. James followed suit, giving Lucie a playful shove as he passed through the door. She yelped, almost slipping on the shiny floor.
James walked up to Matthew, who was standing beside the door with his jaw hanging open.
James grinned. About the room lay all of their friends. Thomas and Eugenia were standing by the sofas, leaning over Anna as she prattled on about something, widely waving her hands about. Alastair and Cordelia stood not too far off from them by the piano and Jesse was standing with Grace and Ari by the window, looking off into the distance while Grace stood awkwardly with her other female companion. She was the first to look up when James entered the room with Matthew.
Each and every single one of them was barefoot. And it was clear Matthew had also noticed the slight gleam of the wooden floor when he slid his bare foot along the lines smoothly, leaving a light textured trail behind.
He turned to James, hesitantly. “James . . . what is the meaning of this? What is going on?” When he didn't reply, Matthew sighed. “Can somebody please explain what we are all doing here?”
James finally gave in, relishing the look of Matthew’s bewildered expression. “Well,” he began, “we caught our Mother mopping down the floors for the wedding. And when we walked into the ballroom, well, it went very downhill very fast.”
“It was quite our fault, as mother did warn us not to walk about the wet floors while she was cleaning.” Lucie chimed in. “But after a couple iratze’s, me and James had a fun idea!”
“We asked mother and father if we could take care of the music room ourselves, and they very kindly let us handle the washing of these wooden floors.” James said, increasing the strength of his voice to build extra unneeded anticipation. “We didn't quite say how we would be cleaning the floors, so we thought it would be nice to have a little . . . fun. While everyone is still together.”
He let the words sit for a while, hoping his friends would be able to connect the dots from there. He was met by silence. And Lucie’s soft giggling at their incredulous looks. He glanced at Matthew, who said nothing. James was about to shake his head in mock disappointment when an exasperated sigh broke through the quiet.
All heads turned to the source of the sound. It was Alastair, slumping down in the piano seat, making an obvious gesture with his hand. “Clearly,” he began, rolling his eyes, “James means for us to skate around this room that quite obviously has soap and water smeared all over it, in order to ‘clean’ it. He means for it to be a unique in unique experience.”
Matthew was looking at Alastair, jaw hanging open. So was everyone else. Alastair raised an eyebrow and everyone looked away. “So, now that you know…. What is everyone waiting for?” Lucie chimed in, clearly wanting to get started with the fun.
“Absolutely nothing.” James swiveled to see that the words had come from his Parabatai, who was grinning ear to ear. “I cannot believe you convinced aunt Tessa to let us slip around barefooted in the music room! Absolutely savage.”
Anna snorted from across the room. “ Savage?”
Matthew shrugged. “What can I say?” He smirked, sliding slightly forward on the slippery ground. “I’m just ahead of my time.”