A/N: This is a oneshot story (not including the upcoming epilogue), since I'm so behind with everything else. I couldn't help but write this though since I found that bit hilarious (how did Jace know about the plum and its consequences anyway?). BUUT if anyone else has any other ideas that they'd like to see, do PM me and I'll try and write it! Also, I've never been to New York, so I have absolutely NO idea about the whole transport and layout of the city, so please bear with me on this!
Jace slumped in his seat, staring glumly at all the other passengers on the train. He seemed so out of place, sitting beside Izzy, who was chirping excitedly about some faerie called Kailen. She was wearing another of her fancy dresses, whilst he and Alec were dressed in their usual Shadowhunter gear. They were heading downtown to some secret faerie nightclub/party place that Isabelle had been invited to by Kailen. Jace hadn't met the guy, but the more that Izzy said about him, the more Jace came to dislike him.
"And there was this time when Kailen showed me a secret entrance to the Court," Isabelle said, waving her hands about. Jace had had enough. He leaned forward and grabbed Isabelle's wrists. She looked down and back at Jace, eyes slitted.
"You didn't hear a word I've been saying this whole time, haven't you?"
Jace shrugged. "Maybe. Look, honestly, we're only coming because we have nothing better to do." He let go of Isabelle's wrists and opened them, palms facing Alec and Isabelle. "I accept no responsibility of any stupid things I do, okay?"
Alec smiled. "Have fun explaining to my parents then, Jace."
Isabelle rolled her eyes and looked up at the scrolling display above their heads. "Oh, we're getting off at the next stop." She gathered her powder blue skirts in one hand and scooped up her matching clutch with the other.
Jace frowned. "Already?" He stood up to let Isabelle out and went to stand by the door. The few mundanes in their carriage didn't notice a thing; the Shadowhunters had taken precautions and applied Marks as normal. Alec and Isabelle joined him and they stepped out as soon as the doors slid smoothly open with a beep.
Isabelle released her skirts and retrieved a slip of paper from her clutch. She studied it closely for a moment and then began to walk in the direction of the bathrooms. Alec and Jace exchanged a glance and followed suit. Isabelle weaved gracefully among the mundane crowd and slipped into a cleaner's room, hidden beside a Coca-Cola vending machine. She rapped a rhythm on the door – rat-tat-a-tat-tat – and the door swung open, but without a hand in sight. Isabelle turned to the others. "Well, come on. They get pretty annoyed if you turn up late, you know."
"For your information, Isabelle Lightwood," Jace said, "We do not go to these things, so we do not know that faeries get annoyed if you turn up late." Isabelle scoffed and walked in, followed by a smug looking Jace and amused Alec.
"So you've got us in a closet, Izzy," Alec pointed out. "Now what?"
"Now, we wait for someone to come and get us."
As soon as the words were out of Isabelle's mouth, the wall opposite to the door in which they came in slid silently aside, letting a wave of dim light pour into the originally tiny room. A faerie stood in the doorway silhouetted against the light. Had Jace not been wearing a Voyance rune, he would have struggled to see him. The faerie was grass green, with electric blue eyes. A pair of equally green opaque wings sprouted from his back, tapering to a point at the upper tips.
"Kailen!" Isabelle cried, stepping forward.
Kailen, the faerie, smiled, baring needle sharp teeth. "It is good to see you again, Isabelle. But who are your companions?" He looked at Jace, right in the eyes, eyes gleaming. "But wait, I think I have seen you before."
"In your worst nightmares," Jace replied. "Probably."
Alec nudged Jace in the ribs and hissed, "Don't bait them. Who know what they'll do to you?" Jace merely shrugged.
"Very well then," said Kailen, "Follow me." He turned neatly on his heel and marched into the room beyond. Isabelle scurried after him, with Jace and Alec hot on her heels. Jace glanced back and saw the panel slide shut behind. Suddenly, he went crashing into Alec, who had stopped. Which meant that Kailen and Isabelle had also stopped. Jace looked around him, trying to get a sense of his bearings.
They were in some kind of courtyard, the sky probably reproduced by a faerie spell. A large tree grew in the centre, its branches adorned with plump fruits. Some were one bright colour, but others bore a brilliant tie dye-like spiral with clashing colours, like purple and yellow. Even so, they looked delicious. Jace wondered what they would taste like.
Kailen's voice brought Jace abruptly back to earth. "... They're even more dangerous, though," he finished. Jace shrugged. Whatever he was talking about probably wasn't that important anyway. He looked at the fruits again and one caught his eye. It was a little higher up, golden skin gleaming. He reached out for it, but looked around first. And realised that the others had almost left him behind, but he caught a glimpse of Isabelle's skirts rounding a corner ahead.
"Crap," he muttered. That plum was going to have to come later. He ran off after the others, making note of the directions for later.
He finally caught up with Alec, who had noticed Jace's absence from the group. "Took your time, didn't you?" Alec rolled his eyes.
"I'm sorry," Jace said indignantly and fell in step beside his parabatai. "So what have I missed?"
"Not much, unless you're interested in Izzy's swooning over some midget faerie."
The pair emerged in another courtyard, this time filled with faeries of all different shapes and sizes. The ceiling was enormous, stars glittering realistically. A pixie drifted by him, dressed in a torn lace dress that was far too large on the pixie's skeletal body. It turned it head as it passed; its eyes were sunken deep into the skull and its mouth was stretched into a huge grin that revealed row upon row of purple teeth. In a red flash, the pixie was gone. Jace shuddered. Thank God he didn't have to fight that.
The two drifted aimlessly around the party; it seemed that only Isabelle was enjoying the time. Jace saw her countless times flirting with Kailen, who seemed to be enjoying the attention. For a while, Alec and Jace wandered around, trying to have fun, but their efforts were futile.
Soon enough, they found themselves sitting on a bench on the edge of the courtyard, watching the faeries do what faeries did. They were the centre of attention; Nephilim at faerie parties were a rare sight. Faeries went out of their way to wander past the unlikely pair, staring with the wide eyes that give Jace the shivers. But the boredom was just too much.
"I don't understand how Isabelle enjoys these things," Jace wondered aloud. "All you do is get surrounded by creepy looking faeries that you can't piss off or they'll do some wicked magic on you."
"Not everyone's like you, Jace," Alec pointed out. "I think this is alright. Except for the really skeletal faeries; now they're scary."
At that moment, one of the faerie waitresses flitted past, carrying a tray of wicked red drinks. Jace snapped his fingers and the faerie scurried over, hoisting up the tray on a twig-like arm. Jace picked up one of the small glasses and winked at the faerie. She blushed and went into a flurry of giggles before flitting away with a bat of her eyelashes.
"Don't tease them like that!" Alec chided.
"What can I say? They like my charms so I give it to them." Jace held up the glass, which sat neatly in his palm.
"Don't drink it!" Alec snapped.
"Are you going to sit there and tell me what not to do for the rest of the night? It's a party, Alec; we're supposed to drink, get wasted and get a nasty hangover tomorrow." Before Alec could protest further, Jace raised the glass to his lips and sculled the drink down in a gulp.
The effects were immediate. This particular drink drew out the effects of faerie magic, thus making the lure of the fruit tree irresistible for Jace. Had Jace been listening earlier, he would have heard Kailen's warning about the fruit tree...
"Don't look at it too much, or the magic will eat into your mind and lure you to eat the fruit. This is an ancient tree that is important in the faerie culture, so its magic is quite strong, even by faerie standards. The fruits, well, they're even more dangerous though."
Jace closed his eyes, trying to fight it off, but not even his Marks could save him. His eyes shot open and Jace succumbed to the magic. Darting quickly through the crowd without a backwards glance, he briefly lost Alec in the crowd and Jace made his way to the other courtyard. His excellent memory served him well and he soon found himself standing in front of the tree. He nimbly scaled the tree until he reached the branch on which the golden faerie plum hung. Normally he would have looked down or made sure that the branch was stable, but the magic overrode his instincts and before his brain could comprehend what was happening, Jace found himself back at the foot of the tree, holding the plum.
Faerie glasses were small, so Jace had only consumed a small bit of potion for his body size, and the magic was beginning to wear off. Eat it. Eat it now. A voice whispered in the back of his mind. Jace shook his head violently, trying to shake it off. Quickly, before Alec comes. The voice was right; it was always right. The drinks had weakened the effects of the Marks Jace bore, and before he realised, he was biting into the fruit, golden juice dribbling down his chin.
The magic rushed through his veins like nothing he'd ever felt before. He felt stronger, more alive than ever before. He felt like he could do anything, be anything. Whatever was left of his self control vanished in that single bite and had Jace been watching himself, he would have seen his pupils widen as his body was overridden by the magic. The plum fell from his slackened hand.
To Jace, nothing seemed normal anymore. The tree's branches were squirming, reaching out to grab him. He screamed and ran out, back towards the panel that led out. There was a faerie blocking his way out, but this was no typical faerie. He was one of the Seelie Queen's special bodyguards, but why he was at an underground party, Jace didn't care.
The faerie held out its hand to stop Jace but Jace, face contorted in frenzy, reached up and hauled the faerie aside by the magnificent antlers that he sported. The faerie went flying with a squeak, but without its antlers, which Jace managed to jam on to his own head. He slammed a panel beside the door and it opened. Jace ran out of the closet and into the station.
The power of the Marks had been nullified by the faerie fruit, and the few mundanes that were at the station got an awful fright. To them, they saw a frenzied looking teenage boy wearing antlers bursting out of a cleaner's closet. Not exactly a pretty sight, it was. Jace hissed at them, before sprinting out of the station and onto Madison Avenue.
The air outside was cool, compared to the stifling humidity of the faeries' party. Jace ripped off his clothes and embraced the cool breeze head on. He was sweating profusely from fighting the magic; but it wasn't enough. And so, Jace ran up and down the street, feeling the wind rush along his skin.
It just happened to be a Friday night, so the restaurants and clubs that lined the Avenue were packed full of mundanes. Many were standing outside, lining up to get in. Their eyes widened in confusion and disgust as they watched Jace run in his full glory. One even passed out in shock as Jace streaked by in a golden blur, whilst a few more whipped out their phones and cameras and started filming. But had one of the onlookers been a Nephilim, they would have also seen a dark-haired boy chasing said-streaker, calling out for him to stop.
The dark-haired boy was none other than Alec. He lengthened his strides; he had to save Jace from humiliation. Jace reached an alleyway and turned in. Alec followed, right on his heels. He shot out a hand and slammed Jace against the wall. Jace writhed, hissing wildly as he tried to break free. Alec tried especially hard not to look down.
"You're kidding me," said a familiar voice behind Alec.
He turned his head to see Isabelle standing, skirts flapping in the wind, looking amused. "I didn't think he'd really be this dumb." She held up a bundle of black clothes. "I picked these up on my way here."
Alec nodded. "Thanks. But how did you follow us?"
"I followed the trail of stunned mundies. It wasn't that hard, really."
"Oh. Well, we'd better get him back to the Institute. Our parents are going to get so pissed," said Alec, and proceeded to slap Jace. CRACK! "Okay, we'd better move fast before he realises that I slapped him."
A/N: WHEE! Did you like it? No, don't nod, put it in a review! Epilogue will be coming to a computer near you soon!