"Hey Jace," I say walking into the control room of the institute.

"Hey babe" he replies as he hugs me and kisses me on the side of the head. "I thought you were shopping with Izzie?"

"I was, she bought a new dress to wear on her date with Simon tonight. She's getting ready now."

"Will that even be enough time for a date five hours from now?" He chuckles to himself.

Everyone knows it takes Izzie longer to get ready for an event, then actually attend the event itself. "Where are they going?" he asks.

"I think the Movie in the Park at Central" I reply a little distracted

"What's playing? You want to go?" Jace asks and starts tapping on the monitor one handed, his other arm still around me, I assume to find out what is playing tonight.

"Um, yeah, maybe" I say walking out of his arms and pace around the table a little. I have been meaning to ask Jace something for weeks and haven't had the courage to, but Izzie and I had a little escapade with some demons while at the mall which finally tipped me over the edge…

"Jace." I say in a tone that makes him immediately look up at me

"Clary?" He says in a cautious, what is going on tone.

"I need to ask you something, and I need you to listen to me before you say anything. Okay?"

"Okay?" he says leaning against the monitor table, obviously having absolutely no idea what is going on. We tell each other everything, even just off the wall facts, or if one of us has a strange question we ask it, there is now foreplay. After everything we have been through the last few months, we never know when we might lose the other so we don't dance around one another, we run straight into each other.

"I need you to teach me how to fight, how to be a shadowhunter, seriously train me. We have fooled around a lot over the past few months with you giving me pointers and what not, but with everything going on there was never enough time to actually sit me down and train me. We have time now." I blurt everything out in a rush, knowing he was going to immediately say no. I couldn't even look him in the face.

He was silent for a few seconds which surprised me and gave me the courage to look up. His face was confused and worried, he almost looked like he had failed me in some way. "Why?" he whispers.

I walk over him and grab his hand, to comfort him hopefully, "I need you to make me your partner, your equal." He starts to interrupt me, but I stop him. "We are equals, in everything except this, you never stop me from doing something if you think it is too dangerous or you disagree or whatever. You always tell me you don't like it, but you never talk me out of it. I need you to not talk me out of this. I need you to train me. I cannot have you defending me anymore. I have always heard about you being a bad ass Shadowhunter before I came into the picture, and I have watched you be that over these past few months, but the thing is, you haven't had to just worry about yourself, you have had to worry about me too and that's not fair. I know you get injured more now than you used to, I know you have had to train harder than before to learn how to defend both of us, that's not fair to you and it is not fair of me to depend on you to always to defend me, I am a Shadowhunter too, I need to learn to be one, to fight like one." Jace won't look at me so I gently grab his face and make him "I want to be able to protect you too."

"Why not Izzie or Alec. They are just as good as I am."

With this question I know I am on the right tract and he might actually say yes.

"Because you are the best, and we both know it. We may joke about it, but in reality it is true, you are the best there is. On top of that, you know me better than anybody. You know how to take my strengths and my weaknesses and turn them to my advantage, to make sure I win." I put both hands on his face and hold it close to mine. "I want us to be the best, us to be the ones everyone talks about. Our relationship is everything to me, but our partnership will make us better."

He heavy sighs and pulls me into his chest and lays his chin on top of my head. "You want me to say yes, I want to say yes, my problem is, I don't know how I am going to be able to handle teaching you how to take down the enemy and then leaving you to do that. We both know I am overprotective of you and if anything were to come at you I would immediately attack it and not let it get anywhere near you so that is something we are both going to have to train for."

"We both know you hate change babe, but you will get over it" I laugh hugging him tighter, knowing he is going to give me what I want, maybe not because he agrees, but because I asked.

"I will have to think through a few things and talk to some people, but we can start in the next couple days. In the meantime, movie?"

"Sounds perfect."

We turn to walk out of the control room hand in hand and Jace turns to look at me, "You're right you know."

"About what?"

"All of it. You said I always tell you when I disagree with you, but I also always tell you when you are right, and in this case you are. I cannot always defend you and I think in the long run it will give me more peace of mind to know you are just as badass as me and that you have my back."

"I lied," I say "Let's start now!" I send him a wink and run down the hall to his bedroom, well our bedroom considering my stuff takes up more than half the room. I hear him pounding down the hallway, a tad less graceful then normal. The steps sounded far away, but before I knew it he had grabbed me and thrown me on the bed and was on top of me.

"I win!" he says kissing me down my neck, but I'm distracted on how the hell he got to me so fast.

"Wait! How!?"

He pulls off his shirt and points to a small rune I hadn't paid attention to before "Echo Rune, you fail your first lesson by the way, but I am willing to give extra credit" He winks at me. I grab him and we roll so I am on top of him.

"I was always good at extra credit."

I don't think we are going to make it to the movie tonight.