"Movies and ice-cream is so… mundane," Jace groaned.
"I don't care. You promised," replied Clary firmly.
Clary puffed the soft muslin-covered pillows and reclined against them to test their fluffiness. Mmm, perfect she thought. With a sweet smile at Jace, she tapped the spot on the bed beside her. Jace sulkily complied and plopped himself down on the comfortable mattress.
"Ugh, fine. Anything for you, darling," Jace said as he planted a kiss on the top of Clary's head. Leaning into the crook of the boy's neck, Clary grabbed the remote control and pressed play. They were watching A Walk to Remember, one of Clary's favourite romance movies of all time.
"You smell nice tonight," commented Clary.
"I always do," said Jace smugly. Clary could almost hear his smirk.
"Aww, poor baby… All those demon hunting seems to have driven you towards delusion. There, there." Jace rolled his eyes and Clary giggled. She loved messing with him once in a while.
"If this were any other time I would most likely give you a nice witty retort, but all those demon slaying has actually been rather exhausting of late. So I'll let this one pass. I must warn you though, you're not getting away with it next time," Jace sounded almost stern but of course he wasn't really serious - he enjoyed bantering with Clary, though. It's his favourite part of the day, to think of it.
"Shush! I want to watch the movie," scolded Clary - jokingly, of course.
"Guess who started the conversation?" Clary wasn't facing Jace but he knew she was grinning.
The lovebirds did watch the movie though - the whole time with Jace's arm wrapped cozily around Clary's petite curled-up body. However, it was maybe wrong to say that both of them were watching the movie. Clary was the only one watching. Jace couldn't care less about a romance film about mundies. He was mostly watching Clary's engrossed expressions. It was so fun to see her face shift from amusement to concern to utter devastation so quickly. Clary is definitely always, always more entertaining than some sappy mundie film.
As the film was nearing its end, Clary began being aware of Jace's admiring gaze on her. She turned around as the credits rolled up, her eyes red and puffy from all the crying - yes, the movie still does that to her even after watching it a billion times - and Jace burst out laughing.
"What?" demanded Clary defensively.
Jace pulled Clary in tighter, his right hand stroking against Clary's soft red hair gingerly. He stayed still for a moment, but stifled a laughter into Clary's hair again.
"What?" repeated Clary, her tone tinted with irritation.
With laughter tears in his eyes, Jace replied, his voice still trembling for he was trying to suppress his giggles, "Nothing! You're just so…cute. Like a little duckling."
"I'm like a duckling?" Clary pulled away and raised an eyebrow at Jace - yes, she finally learnt to do that.
"Yeah," Jace leaned in toward Clary, "my irresistibly adorable duckling - so impossibly cute that I think I'm probably dreaming right now."
Jace smirked his overconfident smirk, but the one that Clary thought made Jace actually look somehow vulnerable - the smirk that actually made Jace endearing instead of aggravating.
"Well, then, I guess I need to prove that I am, in fact, very much real." With a wide blissful smile, Clary closed the gap between them.
The sensation of their lips crashing together still felt otherworldly, even after all this time.