Author's Note: This is my first Jace and Clary story, I wrote a poem but that's it. I was trying to capture the Jace that is described when Clary come to ask if he is still, "interested" in City of Glass, Jace without his armor. Sorry if it seems OCC to you.
The Way of a Lover
It had been so long, at least that was what it felt like. I had been weeks since she had seen Jace and now she would see him again. When they had gotten back from Idris he had started to train her and she had caught on with a surprising ease considering her mundane upbringing, of course she did have it in her blood and an amazing teacher that didn't mind telling everybody so.
Now she stands in a crowded airport with the cool, calm, and black suits of the business men and women, the rushing parents that are dragging their family members to wherever there next destination might be, and the arguing older couples that are obviously retired and have gone to see the world they missed when they were young. She smiled to herself she fit in and she didn't, there was the perfectly normal girl who was waiting with the hot and cold flashes of nerviness and the desire to see her boyfriend, and then there was the girl who knew that new scares would now mare his perfection, but then again she couldn't picture her rugged angle without them. She knew that he would be unhappy that he had been required to sit on the long flight from Africa when he could have easily accessed a portal, so why hadn't he? Well that was the matter that had separated her from Jace for the past two weeks, and so soon after they had been able to settle into a normal shadowhunter life. You see Jace was something the Clave had never seen before and they were concerned about the power that he might posses so they had sent him to some shadowhunter city in Africa to prove that he wasn't a threat and that he wasn't the new Valentine and so on. She had really not wanted him to go but had encouraged him to anyway; he needed to prove that he wasn't his father's son and that he was still as loyal to the Clave as he had ever been.
When they had gotten the 'request' Clary had been filled with an all consuming anger, how dare they! How could they even possibly think such things, Jace had died fighting against Valentine and his real son, of course no one knew that but the two of them, but she had been furious, mad beyond belief, but she had known that he needed to go. When they had packed and he was ready to go he sent a message to the Clave asking for them to tell him where he needed to be so Magus could make him a portal, but the Clave had a different idea. They had somehow come to the conclusion that Jace had not spent enough time acting as a human; apparently the Clave was now making shadowhunters all over the world spend more time among their distant relatives, they seemed to think that this would help them come to respect their new downworlder allies and the people they had been made to protect.
So much to Jace's annoyance they had made him take a plane, a mode of transportation that upon arriving at the airport with Clary he decided that he hated. Clary really couldn't blame him she didn't know of any human that loved to spend time in airports and with the acute sense of hearing that shadowhunters were gifted with she realized that they were much worse. Over the past couple of months with her training she had acquired several of the permanent runes that the shadowhunters wore, senses were one of them, and the airport was loud. She had left him at security, which Jace had looked at and nearly started laughing. With a quick, but passionate, kiss, a whispered, "Don't miss me too much," and a signature Jace smirk he had joined the crowd. As she watched him move through the lines she had sighed with a little desperation, two weeks was looking like a very long time. She walked out of the airport and caught a cab to the instituted were she had grabbed her ipod and sketch book and headed to the green house where she spent the rest of the day listening to music and drawing whatever came to mind.
When night had come around she had dropped by and said goodnight to Isabelle and Alec. Isabelle had been painting her toenails upon Clary entering the room, she had promised so girl time with a freighting look of glee and reminded her that she and Alec were going to continue Clary's training in Jace's absence. Alec had been on the phone with Magnus and Clary had simply waved and exited the room before she heard anymore of the conversation.
When she got home she had dinner with her mom and Luke before heading up to her room. As Clary stood there thinking about the two weeks that Jace had been gone she could say with an absolute certainty that the nights and the mornings were the worst. Even though her mother had done everything in her power to make sure that the two never slept together, she had underestimated Jace's angle blood and the power it gave him, their determination to make up for the lost time, and the agonizing pain that had been their everyday friend when they had been siblings. Every night Jace would be by her side, whenever she woke up with the terrible fear that the whole thing was a dream and the Jace was her brother or worse, that she hadn't been able to save him from Valentine's sword he was there to kiss away all her fears, and anything else that might have been on her mind. In the mornings she would wake with him by her side, he was always gone by the time that Jocelyn came in to get Clary up for school, but she held those few late night moments, and early morning kisses close to her heart through the long nights and lonely mornings.
She scanned the crowd once again his flight had either already landed or was landing soon and she didn't want to miss him. Saturdays had been almost as bad especially considering their last Saturday together. Her body stiffened and shuddered at the memory of the Saturday before he had left. He had finished packing and they had learned his flight was for early the next morning, they were going to have to get up at some ridiculous hour in the morning to get him there on time, something like four o'clock. He had turned to her with a distinctly mischievous look in his golden eyes. She blushed as she thought about that long afternoon, she looked down, the hair on her arms was standing straight up, and this was just a memory. They had never taken that final step, but Clary had almost given in and she held the memory close to her heart.
"Whatcha thinking about?" A voice said softly into her ear.
She jumped but immediately relaxed and leaned into the strong body behind her, Jace. It was like his mere presence was a balm to her previously aching soul. She turned around but before she could say anything his lips were on hers, their tongues pushing against each other's each of them seeking to get closer. He pulled back slowly and laughed at her disappointed expression, he looked over her shoulder at a group of people looking as them with expressions varying from disgusted disapproval to an understanding look and a chuckle. Clary's face quickly approached the same color as her hair, but she refused to step away from him. He smiled down at her he had missed her so much, seeing her standing in the middle of the crowded space thinking about something, her face had the blank longing look that he would sometimes catch her with. He had smiled as she blushed and ran her hand up and down her shivering arms he had missed her so much, and he now had a new respect with her ability to put up with craziness that seemed to be an everyday affair in the mundane world.
"How was the trip?" she asked almost carefully she knew how important it was for him to prove himself as the loyal shadowhunter she knew him to be.
"It was very…..interesting," he said his perfect face perplexed, "I don't know if it was really to prove I was loyal to the Clave there were a bunch of other shadowhunters there too, and none of them had anything to do with Valentine."
Clary frowned, she hated the way the Clave could jerk the shadowhunters around, she hopped that with downworlders now part of the Clave the power they had over every shadowhunter would become less, not that she was especially fond of downworlders as a whole, but she did believe the Clave would be better balanced with their input.
Jace smiled down at Clary, "Are we going to stand in the middle of this terrible airport for the rest of the day, because it has been a rather long time since I was home."
Clary smiled and took his hand as they walked out of the airport and hailed a cab and they gave the directions to the institute. The ride there was spent in a comfortable silence with Clary's head on Jace's chest. When they arrived at the institute Isabelle and Alec were waiting for them. After the greeting and hugs were through Alec said that he had some kind of a date with Magnus and Isabelle said there was a huge sale that she couldn't miss and promised to be home to make dinner, the others assured her there was no rush and she could take her time, they could handle dinner.
Clary and Jace walked towards his room, he opened the door and put his stuff down. Clary had her back to him and was starring at his blank walls. He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist drawing her as close to him as he could.
"What are you looking at?" he whispered lowly, loving the way she shivered as his cool breath danced across her neck.
"Why are your walls so blank, its kinda depressing, how do you sleep surrounded by white walls?"
He laughed softly and smiled, he should have expected her to care about how decorative his walls were.
"I don't usually sleep here," he reminded her, she turned whatever she had been about to say was now completely forgotten. Jace leaned down and gently brushed his lips against hers both of them marveling at the feeling. His tongue brushed against lips as his fingers flexed around her hips tracing patterns on her exposed skin, she felt her knees going weak, she had no idea if she was even supporting her own weight anymore all she thought was Jace, Jace, Jace… her body hammering and shivering. He deepened the kiss his tongue exploring the secrets of her mouth, Clary's eyes closed, she wrapped her arms around his neck her fingers in his hair. His mouth left hers as he kissed a path down the side of her neck, her body arched against his getting impossible closer. He ran his tongue across her collar bone stopping to kiss the hollow of her neck. Clary's eyes flew open her whole body shaking her legs no longer able to support any of her weight.
Jace laughed softly as Clary's checks became pink,
"I am glad to see I still have some effect on you," he said with a look that was somewhere in between a smirk and a longing smile.
Now standing on her own Clary smiled back at him, "I could say the say for you Mr. Lightwood," she said pulling gently at the sides of his shirt. He pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it on the ground with an exaggerated slowness. He walked over to his bed a stretched out looking at Clary expectantly,
"Care to join me?" he asked
Clary smiled and climbed in next to him, as soon as she got close enough his hands were on her hips pulling her closer she reached out her hand and ran her finger over his chest tracing the scares that made him so perfect, she watched as his breathing became slower softer his eyes closed a peaceful smile on his face. She didn't think she would ever get tired of this, the on a sudden thought she leaned over and pressed her lips to his bare chest. She felt rather than heard his sharp intake of breath.
"Clary," he said, her name like an explanation, like an understanding that he had come to, he said her name the way only a lover can.
"Jace"