Disclaimer: (for fanfiction) All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: As this was the first fanfic I posted I decided to give it a bit of a cleanup. It will stay the same story of course, but one or two things will change. I wrote this whole thing in 12 days

No beta, because mine is busy as it is, so any mistakes are still mine

Reposted 10-02-16

Prologue

Age six

Jace

The moving truck drove off at noon and we rushed out the door, excited to meet our new neighbors.

Alec, Izzy and me had had our noses pressed against the window since breakfast, when a car pulled up in front of the house and two kids got out.

Climbing over the fence we snuck to the back of the house and met a boy a year or two older. His hair was almost white, like old Mrs. Herondale's who used to live there. He kicked a soccer ball against the wall with a bored look on his face

Being the oldest, Alec had named himself our leader so naturally he was the first to walk up and introduce himself.

"Hi. You're our new neighbors. I´m Alec, and this is Jace and Izzy," he pointed to us as he said our names.

The boy kept his eyes on the ball "Jon."

He didn't seem very nice and I stuck out my tongue at his back. I wanted to go look for the girl with the long, red hair, but Izzy wasn't done yet.

"Hi, Jon, " she smiled, showing off missing front teeth. "Do you have a brother or a sister?" I was about to remind her about the long hair, but she didn't give me a chance. "I hope you have a sister, playing with boys is boring 'cause they never want to play anything fun, like dolls or house. I really want a girl to play with..." she rambled on.

"Breathe", Alec muttered. Izzy glared at him and smacked his arm.

"Yeah, I got a sister. She´s over there, somewhere," he gestured to the apple tree all the way in the back, right by the fence to Mr. Garroway's backyard. It had the best apples in the whole town. Mrs. Herondale used to let us pick them when we wanted. I hoped the new neighbors would too.

"Ooooh, great," Izzy jumped up and down with excitement. "What´s her name?"

The question stopped Jon's kicking and he turned to us with a grin, "Her name is Clarissa."

We hurried up to the tree, but when we didn't see anyone we each picked out a juice, red apple. I took a big bite from mine and almost choked on it when the branch above our heads started shaking. Leaves fell to the ground and I was about to call for Mom when a head appeared and a girl crawled out on the thickest branch.

She was small. Even smaller than Izzy. She had freckles all over her face and her curly hair was the color of fire. This was the other boy's sister? She was the prettiest girl I´d ever seen.

"Hi," I spoke before Alec had a chance. "I'm Jace, and this is Alec and Izzy. You must be Clarissa."

"Ugh," the girl glared at me. "No onecalls me Clarissa. I hate that name."

That explained the look in Jon's eyes. That wasn't very nice of him.

"What do you want us to call you?" Izzy asked beside me.

"Everybody calls me Clary," the girl, Clary, answered.

"Well, I´m not just anybody," I smiledthat smile, the one mom always said would get girls in trouble when I grew up. I didn't understand what she meant, but it usually got me what I wanted. "I don´t want to call you Clary," I paused, thinking "I think I´ll call you C."

She looked at me for the longest time before nodding. "Okay, I'm allowing it." Holding on to branch she sat on she started lowering herself down to the ground.

"Wait, let me help you," I reached up and placed my arms around her.

She yelped and lost her hold on the branch, taking me with her in the fall and knocked the air from my lungs.

C pushed herself off me and jumped to her feet with a scream. "Hey, stupid!" She brushed off her clothes and noticed the grass stains on her knees. "Look what you did, butthead."

"I was just helping," I muttered and stood up, just to fall back down when she punched me right in the face.

"I don´t need your help," she yelled and stormed off.

Mom freaked out when we came home and she saw my bloody nose. "Oh my God, Jace. What happened to you?"

"He go punched in the face," Alec told her and added smugly, "By a girl."

"What?" Mom gaped at us. "Someone hit you? Who?

I smiled a bloody smile. "Her name is Clary and I'm gonna marry her."

Age eight

Clary

"Come on," I called out to Mom, who was running to catch up with me. It had been two days since Zombie Death Wars was released, but I had been grounded for fighting. Today was the first day I was allowed to leave the house, but I had to wait until Mom got off work. "Hurry!"

I had been waiting years and years for this game and I couldn't wait to play it.

When I was met by nothing but empty shelves I was sure they'd sold out and almost threw a fit. 'It's that stupid Jace's fault.' I wanted to scream and to hit something, and I would have, but that's when I saw they had one copy left, all the way in the back of the store.

I ran as fast as I could and puffed loudly in relief when I felt the case between my fingers. I tightened my grip and was about to head to the register when I felt a tug on my arm.

No, not my arm, someone was trying to steal my game.

"You", the word dripped with hatred.

"Yes, C. It´s me", he grinned that stupid grin of his. The black eye he was sporting just made him look

stupider.

"What are you doing here?" GAME was my place. It was bad enough I couldn't have the street to myself, he had to show up there too?

"Buying this game," he said and tried to pull it out of my hands, but lucky for me he didn't just punch like a girl, he pulled like one too.

"No, you´re not!" I was so mad I just wanted to punch him again. "I am!"

I did my best to the game from him, but he clung to it like a virgin on prom night. I wasn't exactly sure what that meant, just that you held on to something really hard. At least that was what my brother told me.

"Let go, Jace, or I´ll punch you again" I yelled, causing everyone to stop what they were doing and stare at us.

"Maybe I´ll punch you back," he quipped and tried to pry open my fingers.

"You wouldn´t," I taunted him. "I´m a girl. Boys can't hit girls."

"Try me," he smiled stupidly again.

"I hate you, Jace Lightwood" I screamed as loud as I could, spit flew out of my mouth and everything. It was awesome.

That's was when our mothers came running, "Clary," Mom scolded me. "I can't turn my back on you for two seconds before you get in a fight. Do I need to ground you again?"

"But Moom, "I pouted. "He's stealing my game."

"You live next door to each other," Jace's mom said. "Why don´t you share it?"

I eyed her suspiciously "Share?"

"How?" Jace asked, seeming more open to the idea than I was. Traitor.

"You could have it every other day. Or," Mrs. Lightwood hesitated, maybe she already regretted her stupid plan, "you could go over to each other's houses and play it together."

"Hmm...What do you think?" Jace asked slowly. "We could play at my house; we have a bigger TV"

"Can I bring Simon?" I asked. Simon was my best friend and we used to live next door to him.

"Sure"

"Okay then," I wasn´t super happy about it, but at least I'd get to play my game.

A couple of hours later:

"Wow. You´re really good at this," Jace sounded impressed.

"I know," I shrugged, because I did know that. "You´re not so bad yourself," I offered him graciously.

"Want to be best friends?" he asked, eyes on the TV screen.

"Hey, what about me," Simon complained.

Guilt. I had forgotten he was there.

I glanced at him from the corner of my eye where he sat on the floor, playing monopoly with Izzy then turned back to the TV.

"I could give him to Izzy, I guess," I shrugged, a little less certain this time.

"Great," Jace looked at me and smiled,that smile, and for the first time since I´d met him I didn´t find it annoying.

That was the start of a not so beautiful friendship.

Age 10

Jace

The noise outside my window woke me up at three am. Who in the hell could it be this early?

I shuffled over to the window and pulled the curtains aside just to come face to face with C, standing on the ladder dad used when he painted our house, dressed in nothing but a worn Metallica t-shirt.

I popped the latch and quickly helped her inside. "Just like Joey climbing through Dawson's window," I snickered quietly.

She didn't answer and when I looked at her I saw tears slowly trickling down er freckled cheeks. I didn't know what to do, I had never seen her cry before. I didn't even know she knew how.

"C?"I asked, worried. "What´s wrong?"

"They´re fighting again," she whispered. "Can I stay here tonight?"

Everyone in my family knew her parents fought, like all the time. Hell, we could hear them. Her father was a large man, and he always seemed angry. After Jon died in that hit-and-run accident it got even worse. Two years and it wasn't any better. He didn't hit them, but shoved them around a lot. But it was still scary.

There wasn't anything to say so I tip-toed out to the linen closet for extra pillows and blankets. Later

when we were lying next to each other in bed I pulled her close to me and whispered "You can stay as long as you want."

Age 12

Jace

We were lying on my bed watching X-man, for maybe the thousandth time. C was cool like that. She liked video games and action movies instead of make-up and chick flicks.

"Wolverine is really hot," she said, eyes glued to the screen were a shirtless Hugh Jackman took up half the screen. "You know, for an older guy."

I gaped at her. "He´s old enough to be your dad. Besides, he´s a douche for moving in on Cyclops girl like that!"

C shrugged. "She should obviously be with Wolverine. He´s just...more. Of everything."

I looked down at my scrawny chest and skinny arms. I didn't have more of anything. It pissed me off even without knowing why.

"So cheating is okay if the other guy is 'more'?" I said with sarcastic finger quotes. "God, you´re such a slut!"

She jumped off my bed and stomped towards the door. " I hate you!" she screamed and slammed the door behind her.

Age 14

Jace

I watched C getting ready for her first date with Sebastian from on top of her bed. "How do I look?" she asked and spun around in a circle in the middle of the floor.

As if her image wasn't already burnt on my retinas I pretended to study her petite body, barely covered in a green top the exact shade of her eyes and a short black skirt. I shrugged, "I've seen worse."

"Thanks..." C rolled her eyes. "You always say the nicest things."

"Any time, Hun," I winked, but on the inside I was shaking my head. I could have my pick of the girls in our grade, a lot of the older ones too, but C had a way of turning my intestines to jello with only a smile. Why was this girl, the only girl Icouldn´thave, the only one I wanted? We had been best friends for six years, six years. That was almost half our lives. I hadn't wanted to say anything about what I felt, afraid to ruin our friendship, and now she was going on a date with someone else. I was such a cliché.

"C.."I started, "you really shouldn´t go out with Seb. He´s not a good guy." I tried to make her understand, to listen. "He´ll only use you. It´s what he does to all the girls."

"So... what you´re saying is that he´s just likeyou?"

"Yes", I was glad that she finally seemed to get it. "Wait...no. I´m not like that"

"Whatever, Jace" she glared at me. "He´syour friend. Shouldn´t you be happy for us?"

"It's not the same. I wouldn´t let him anywhere near my sister." I took her small hands in mine, pleading for her to hear me out. "He´s a total ass when it comes to girls"

She snatched her hands from mine and took a step back. "Well, Jace, I´mnot your sister. I like Seb, and he likes me. Do us both a favor and stay the hell out of my life."

Age 16

Clary

With one hand holding onto the ladder I carefully knocked on the window and waited. I hadn't used the old ladder to climb up to Jace's window in years, not since they gave me my own key to the door, but I wasn't in the mood to see the others.

He opened the window still wearing the same suit as at the dance, sans jacket, as if he hadn´t had time to change since he got home from dropping his date off. Or maybe…Maybe she was in there with him. I felt nauseous. "Are you alone?" I whispered.

"Of course," he quirked a brow. "Why wouldn´t I be?"

"You could´ve brought your date home with you?" I phrased it as a question.

He chuckled "Nah, she had a curfew." He gave me a quick once-over, seeing that I was still in my jade green prom dress. "Are you going to stand there all night, or are you coming in?"

He grabbed me by my waist and easily lifted me over the sill. "A little help please."

He placed his strong hand around my waist and lifted me over the window sill.

"Thanks."

Jace walked over to his dresser and pulled out a t-shirt. "Maybe you should change. That dress is totally hot, but it looks a little uncomfortable,"

Jace laid in bed when I came back from the bathroom, naked but for a pair of grey sweats. The naked part seemed really important somehow.

"Better?" he asked.

"Very," I smiled and climbed in next to him.

"Speaking of dates..."

Jace hesitated and I smirked, "Funny, I didn´t realized we were still doing that."

"Be serious," he scolded me. "Why are you here, with me, and not with Seb? Because I know for a fact that he rented a hotel room for tonight."

I sighed. "Yeah. I know"

"What happened?"

"He broke up with me," I sounded sad even to my own ears, and I was. Not because I lost my boyfriend, but because I wasted so much time on him in the first place. God, two years when I could have done...

"What?" he sat up straight, "Why?"

I couldn't stop the smile that spread across my lips at his stunned expression. "I wouldn´tput out."

"You´re kidding me! That bastard! I´m going to..."

I took his hand in mine and laced our fingers together. "Don´t bother with him, Jace. I won't, not anymore."

"C?"

"Yeah?" I closed my eyes.

"If he broke up with you because... You know... Does that mean..." Although it was fun to hear him squirm Jace sounded so flustered I decided to go easy on him.

"That I´m still a virgin? Yup," I smacked my lips to pop the p.

"Oh,"

We just lay there for a while, not talking. I kept my eyes closed, playing absentmindedly with his fingers.

I rolled over to the side, facing him and place my free hand on his cheek. "Jace," I breathed and leaned in to press my lips to his. He didn´t kiss me back, but he didn't move away either. When I swept my tongue over his bottom lip and nipped at his top he let out a low moan and parted his lips to let me in. I couldn´t breathe, couldn´t think. I twisted my fingers into his golden hair and pulled him closer.

He broke the kiss and met my eyes. "What are you doing, C?"

I placed wet, openmouthed kisses on his neck, his cheek and finally on his lips. "I´ve always wanted my first time to be special, and what could be more special than it being with my best friend."

He whispered my name and pulled me flush against his strong body, and we didn´t speak for a very long time after that.

Thank you for reading

While this is technically completed it will take some time to edit and post the rest. Thank you for your patience.