He watched her from across the dining table. The table was long and mahogany, like the rest of the furniture. She looked tiny and insecure, sitting in the gran and leather chair in front of the lavish meal. Her moves were dainty and soft, yet not at all graceful, in fact, she had tripped a total of four times on the way to the dining room. He had chuckled and looked her dead in the eye, while she blushed a feverish shade of red.
Jonathan Cristopher Herondale had been engaged to Clarissa Morgenstern since she was still in a cradle, and he had just learnt to walk. But he had still stumbled over to the cot and peaked over the tall wooden bars, staring at the baby staring back at him with emerald eyes.
Once she was two, and he four, they were already friends. He found her name long and difficult, and it reminded him of the words that he was just now learning to read. So, he cut it short, right after the i, and nicknamed her 'Clary'. Around then, she put his initials together and called him 'Jacey' which sounded pretty cool at the time.
He remembered teaching her how to read and write, and pushing her on the swing and singing to her when she was crying, reducing her sobs to soft hiccups.
He remembered being ten and deciding that 'Jacey' just wasn't cool enough. But he still loved the name, his best friend had given it to him! Clary, the very observant 8-year-old, offered the boy a change: Jace.
But when Clary hit 10, things started to change. The empire wanted to see the princess more and more, meaning that she had to be properly educated with all the princess manners, for when she finally became queen. Jace, on the other hand, had to learn how to fight and ride a horse so that he could become a strong king.
Their encounters became more and more rare, but Jace still treasured every single one of them. They, of course, knew of their engagement. But at that tender age, couldn't fully comprehend what marriage really was. Still, it meant spending time with each other, so it wouldn't be that bad, right?
But when Jace and Clary were descending into adolescence, Clary at twelve and Jace at fourteen, Valentine Morgenstern and Jocelyn Morgenstern divorced, and the engagement was put on halt. It was, after all, Jocelyn and Celine's idea to marry them to each other. Stephen had no objections, but Valentine despised the idea. Idris, was his kingdom and while Stephen and Celine's was also powerful, there were many suitor's that had far richer and larger lands.
Valentine threatened to take Clary away and marry her to Meliorn, prince of Sidri, and who was a total of twenty years older than her.
When he declared this, Clary ran to Jace, after months of not seeing each other. He too had heard the news, and they were both devastated. Without thinking twice, Jace lifted Clary onto his horse and rode it far, so far, he didn't know where he was. They stopped under an apple tree, and lay underneath it for hours, while Clary cried and cried, while Jace just listened in silence.
"Clary?" Jace had said, the first thing since she had ran into his arms. "Why don't you run away with me?" He had said it. He was fourteen. He didn't know much. He just knew that his best friend, a girl that he had, inevitably started to crush on, was desperate and sad and had nowhere to go. But she had still gone to him.
"W-what?" she had stuttered. The twelve-year-old girl had only ever heard of such thing in her crappy, vampire fictions that lady Isabelle, daughter of duchess Maryse, passed to her in secret.
"Run away with me." Jace had stared into her eyes. He could feel his heart beating in his chest and the doubt worming inside his brain. But he didn't care. He was headstrong, recklessness and, well in 'like' with his best friend.
"Okay." Clary had smiled and had hugged him under the apple tree. There they had lain, in a pleasant silence for hours. They didn't say or do anything. They didn't need to.
To this day, Jace still remembered the way her innocent face lay on his chest, and her eyelids fluttered to sleep. He had been awake for around 5 minutes more than her, but it was still enough. Still enough to feel his heart clench as he stared at his best friend, snuggling with him on the soft, green grass of a meadow under an apple tree.
That was how they had found them, cuddled together in a pleasant slumber. They had separated them, as their mothers hugged them fiercely, full of worry. They informed them that the engagement was back on, as Valentine had lost status since Jocelyn was the original daughter of the King, and had no choice in what happened to Clary.
They pulled them apart, but they both still remembered those few hours of bliss under an apple tree.
Now, it was different.
Jace started 'discovering' things since then. No, let's be brute about it.
He had fucked almost every maiden in the castle, and some foreigners too. They wanted to have sex with Jace, and Jace just wanted to fuck something. Specially after balls.
Because when there were dances, Clary was always there. And now, she was eighteen. She had long grown out of her little girl body. She was still remarkable skinny, but that was it. She had breasts that bounced every time she laughed, and her dresses always hugged every single one of her perfect curves just right.
Jace would just get a boner by watching her dance, and he'd have to relieve it somehow. So, he got the first girl who fell into his arms, because let's admit it, they all did, and he took her up to his bedroom.
And when he came, he would grunt and moan Clary's name. He knew that one day he would fuck her. He knew it. But he couldn't wait that long if every single time he saw her, he wanted to push her against a wall and make her lose her senses.
Of course, no-one knew exactly how many women he had bedded. It was a topic discussed in hushed whispers, deep in the castle hallways, meant to never get to the princess. Of course, when Isabelle was one of Clary's closest friends, there wasn't a single piece of gossip that didn't reach her pointed ears.
Of course, she shrugged and waved her hand, saying, "He can do whatever he wants, we aren't even married!" but then, at night she would hug her pillow and leave it moist with her tears. Why did he like every girl except her? Especially when she would choose her dress oh, so carefully, so that it would complement her beautifully.
Still, as hard as she tried, Jace flirted with every single girl in the court. All, except her.
Still, now that she was eighteen, she was to be married to him. The next day, in fact.
That was why the whole family sat at the dinner table that evening, excited and nervous about wedding things that Clary couldn't bother with.
And Jace stared at her from across the long mahogany table, observing her with his golden orbs. Of course, he was polite and listened and joke with the rest of the royal family, but his eyes never left her.