Clary sighed contently taking in the beauty of the day. Bright blue skies with no clouds in sight, the grass seemed greener, the air seemed sweeter. Yet it was all exactly the same as t was yesterday. Except there was one major difference and that was the strong golden-headed boy whose arm was wrapped tightly around her waist pulling her close into his body.

"Clary?" He asked.

"Hmm?" She closed her eyes taking in the feeling of the warm sun on her face as she lay in the grass.

"You never answered the last question," he stated firmly. For some reason they had decided to play a game of asking and answering various random questions about the other person. Clary had dozed off, simply listening to the smooth sound of Jace's voice fill her ears and apparently not bothering to what the question actually was.

"What was it?" Clary closed her eyes.

"Favorite color?" He sounded amused and she hoped he was since they had spent the past few hours together.

"Mmm," she hummed in mock thought then stated matter-of-factly. "Gold" Jace let out a short laugh.

"Why's that?" He asked but Clary merely shrugged him off and before he could ask any further questions, interrupted with one of her own.

"What is Jace Lightwood's favorite color?" she drawled out slowly.

"That would be red, Miss Fray," he said using the same tone that she did and leaned down to kiss the top of her head.

"I'm assuming you're not going to tell me why that is either?" She felt him shake in a quiet laugh.

"Not until you tell me."

"I suppose that's fair," she sighed and snuggled into his chest.

"I have another question for you, that would require complete honesty," he whispered softly into her hair. She grunted in a way that said she would comply with his request. "Why haven't you been sleeping at all?"

This threw Clary off for a loop. Lately she hadn't been sleeping but she knew that she was doing pretty good job acting like she wasn't. She wandered out of her room at the same time every day to train with Jace and she didn't complain that she was tired to anyone like she normally would if this was just a regular tired. She was getting reoccurring nightmares about Valentine getting Jace and visions of Sebastion floating in and out of her head tortured her whenever she closed her eyes for too long.

"I have been sleeping," she said weakly and then began to scold herself inwardly knowing that it didn't sound realistic at all.

"Half an hour between training sessions doesn't count," he said sitting up and stretching himself out, widening the distance between him and Clary. Clary took this as a sign that she wouldn't be getting any affection until she told him exactly what was going on so she sighed and pulled back a bit, not looking into the golden eyes of Jace. Clary didn't respond so Jace took the opportunity to ask another question.

"Is something wrong? Did I do something?" She looked up and shook her head quickly.

"Oh. No. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Then why won't you sleep? It's obvious to tell when you don't sleep by how you train." She winced inwardly. So her act hadn't been able to fool him.

"Look, Jace. It's not a big deal." She began to tell him.

"It's a big deal to me." Jace stood up and reached his hand down to help her up.

"Where are we going?" She looked up at him with emerald eyes that made him want to hold her forever in his arms.

"To train. Your mother will have my head on a silver platter if we don't continue your training you know?" She sighed and pouted at him.

"Do we have to?" She whined a bit and shifted to lay back on her elbows.

"Yes. Even if I have to drag you there," he teased and motioned for her to take his hand again, which she did reluctantly.

Several hours later Jace and Clary were found finishing their training session with some hand to hand combat practice. Jace dodged a couple of Clary's weaker attempts to punch him. He smirked at her when she grunted in frustration of not being able to get him.

"You know if you keep looking at me that way you're face is going to stay like that"

"What. Ridiculously attractive? I thought you liked me that way." She simply rolled her eyes at him. He was surprised when one actually caught him in the chest. She smirked at him under her eyelashes.

His mouth was gaping open practically hitting the floor that she had been able to get him. Sure, at first he let her get him quite a few times but he had told her a while ago that she would no longer be able to get him because he wasn't going to go easy on her and that anything she did would be on her own. This was the first time that she was actually successful in actually getting remotely close to taking him down. Clary laughed loudly.

"There, stay like that. That face is a keeper." She stuck her tongue out at him when he glared at her from under his golden hair.

"Are we done? I want a shower?" She tilted her head to the side and gave him that puppy dog look that generally got her what she wanted with him.

"Fine. But just know that you will never be able to catch me like that again."

"Right," she said and ran to her room for a shower, ignoring one of Jace's smart remarks when she ran out the door.

Jace simply shook his head when she left the room. He was distracted when he watched her fight. She was definitely getting better, a lot faster than he would've expected her to be, too. But there was still the matter of her sleeping habits. That needed to change. He could hear her pacing at night when he slept on Luke's couch in his house waiting for her in the morning. She waited until the same time every day to come down for training so that he wouldn't gain suspicion. But as with most of her attempts to trick him, it ended badly.

Jace wasn't sure how long he had stood in the empty room that they had used for training when they were here at Luke's house, but when he snapped out of his trance he was sure of one thing and that was that he was going to get Clary to sleep.

After deciding this he stalked up to her room and flung open the door. There on the bed, wearing sleep pants and a tank top, hair still wet from a shower was a half asleep Clary. He eyes flicked open as she tried to remain awake but the heaviness of her eyelids was giving her a lot of trouble with that. He smiled to himself and sat down on the bed next to her. She whimpered at him and tried to sit up.

Jace pushed her back down onto the bed and whispered to her. "Sleep, Clary." She mumbled in response.

"Can't sleep…"

"Yes you can. You need to." He scooped her up in his arms and lulled her quietly to sleep. Jace was feeling proud of his work when he saw her wince. She started squirming around and whimpering a bit. He lay her down on the bed and stood up, watching her carefully.

"Jace," she cried out fearfully, grabbing around the area in front of her as though searching for something. Her eyes were closed tightly as she squirmed around the bed.

"Clary," he shook her gently at first but got more aggressive when her cries got louder and she wouldn't wake up. "Clary, I'm here."

Her eyes visably relaxed and Jace grabbed her and sat her on his lap. She snuggled her face into his chest as he stroked her hair.

"I'm right here Clary. I always will be."

Alright. This is probably a one shot. I was just bored so I wrote this in about forty five minutes so it probably isn't the best quality. But I would still really appreciate comments. Maybe I'll continue.