"Absolutely not."

Clary rolled her eyes. "Mom, please, just think about it-."

"Oh, I thought about it," Jocelyn assured her. "For about zero point eight seconds, which was as long as it took for me to realise that it was a terrible idea and that I wasn't going to allow it."

"Mom, it's not like I'm just asking to go and spend the night with my boyfriend. I'm asking to go spend the week in the New York Institute," Clary protested, leaning backwards on the kitchen bench.

"Right. Where your boyfriend just happens to live," Jocelyn responded, as she calmly began chopping up the carrots.

"It was Maryse's idea! It's purely for training purposes. If you want you can come to the Institute with a tape measure to make sure I'll be sleeping as far away from Jace's bedroom as possible. It's just so annoying having to go back and forth to train, not to mention all those early morning demon raids that I always miss. Pretty please?"

"Boy, that sounded like some intense begging. What's going on?" Asked Luke, entering the apartment with a bag of groceries.

"Clary wants to go stay at the Institute. For a week."

"Actually, it's six days." Clary interjected, but her mom ignored her.

"Well, why not?"

Jocelyn looked incredulous. "Why not? Why- because of a certain boyfriend who she'll be sneaking off with every night, that's why."

"That is so not true," Clary argued. Well, it probably was going to be true, hopefully, but she wasn't going to tell her mom that.

"I think Clary's responsible enough not to do anything stupid. And it'll give her a chance to really get down to some intense training. Don't get me wrong, she's an amazing Shadowhunter, but missing out on nearly sixteen years of training does take its toll."

Clary fought back a grin. Everything sounded so reasonable coming out of his mouth.

Jocelyn sighed. "Fine. But expect that I will be talking to Maryse about expected behaviour."

Clary nodded frantically. "Understood."

"Terrific. Now, if you don't mind, could you finish dinner?" Jocelyn asked Luke. "I've suddenly been struck with a terrible headache." Before getting a response, Jocelyn stalked off to her room, looking moody.

Luke looked after her sheepishly. "Oops. She's going to be mad at me about this one for a while."

Suddenly, Clary pulled Luke into a hug. "Luke, you are amazing. You are truly the best werewolf step father a girl could ever want."

Luke grinned and pulled away. "What every man wants to hear. But Clary, you'd better not get into any trouble. I'll never hear the end of it if something happens."

"I won't," Clary promised. This was going to be a good week.

"I still cannot believe your Mom would let you do this," Isabelle said in disbelief. "I mean, it's Jocelyn. She's a great woman and an amazing Shadowhunter, but she's protective to say the least."

"What can I say?" Clary grinned. "Marriage has made her much more susceptible to persuasion."

"Yeah, well," Isabelle said, adjusting her gear. "Are we going to fight or what?"

"Damn," Clary said. "I was hoping you'd forget about that bit."

"Why?" Isabelle smirked. "Because you're aware that I'm about to kick your ass?"

"Um, I wish I could come up with a snappy retort," said Clary. "But basically, um, yeah, that's the reason."

"Don't be so negative!" Isabelle chastised. "I mean yeah, I'm a lot better than you-,"

"Wow, thanks for boosting my positivity."

"-but I've been training for a lot longer. Plus, you have all your crazy rune power stuff, and while that's not exactly going to help you right now, it makes us pretty evenly matched on the battlefield."

"Alright," Clary sighed. "Let's go."

Isabelle grinned and opened the training room door. Lately the word 'training' had become synonymous with bruises, exhaustion, and humiliation for Clary Fray. It was making her a lot better, she knew, but it was a little annoying how she happened to be so closely acquainted with all of her trainers, and how they were all so remarkably talented for their age. At least she was much better than Simon, who had just begun his training a few weeks ago and was still overwhelmed by it all.

"Okay," Isabelle said. "You ready?"

Clary crouched down in the fighter's stance. It was the first thing any Shadowhunter was taught when they started training, but Clary could honestly say she'd never had any time to get into any sort of stance while being attacked by a demon or a psychopathic brother. She nodded.

Isabelle swung at Clary's neck, which she anticipated just in time to avoid the blow. She lunged forward and punched at Isabelle's stomach. She made contact, but Isabelle moved away before it could do any real damage.

They continued this way for a while; lunging for each other, but both always managing to swing out of the way before any major damage was done. They travelled across the floor, Isabelle managing to keep pushing Clary back until her back was nearly up against the wall.

"Crap," she thought. Isabelle smirked. Everything seemed to slow right down.

Suddenly, Clary made like she was going for a punch, then kicked Isabelle hard, just below the knee cap. Isabelle jerked back, taken by surprise, giving Clary just the right amount of time and space to jump up on the wall, using it to propel her full body weight onto Isabelle. They crashed to the ground.

Clary's knees straddled Isabelle's abdomen, her arms pinning down Isabelle's hands on the floor, on either side of her face.

"I'd just like to point out that if I had a weapon you would be so screwed right now," Clary told her cheerfully.

"Screw you, Fray."

"Hot," a male voice commented from above. "Are you two going to make out? Because since that would mean you were cheating on me, I think I should at least reserve the right to watch."

Clary turned to grin at her boyfriend, who smiled back at her from the balcony. Isabelle saw the opportunity and within half a second, they had flipped positions.

Isabelle leaned down, her elbow lightly on Clary's throat, threatening to dig in further.

"I win," she whispered huskily in her ear, before drawing away and getting up.

"That was so not fair," Clary complained. "I'd already won, that so didn't count."

"Sorry, Fray," Isabelle smiled radiantly. "But there are no second chances on the battlefield. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a much hotter training date with Simon. He's staying here too, you know." And with that, she flounced out of the training room, leaving Clary staring after her.

"Damn her," Clary muttered. Jace laughed, silently dropping down from the balcony to land beside her.

"Look on the bright side," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist. "You almost just beat Isabelle Lightwood. That is an accomplishment."

Clary shrugged. "It was nothing. She was obviously having an off night, she was distracted about Simon, and she was being cocky as all hell."

Jace laughed incredulously. "You really don't like to give yourself any credit, do you?" He asked her.

"I only give credit where credit is due," Clary responded.

"Listen," Jace said, cupping her chin in his hand and tilting her face up to look at him. "You." He kissed her neck. "Are." Her jawline. "Brilliant." He whispered in her ear. She could feel his hot breath on her cheek.

"Kiss me," she whispered back, and within seconds she was lifted off the ground, and he was kissing her, and she was kissing him back. He groaned softly into her mouth and then they were on the floor and she was on top of him, much like she'd been with Isabelle moments ago.

"Oops, here you are again," he murmured softly.

"Except this time," she purred- which surprised her, when did she ever purr? But she rolled with it- "I get to win."

She pinned his arms down and started kissing him more aggressively. He gasped and freed one of his arms to pull her waist closer to his. They remained like this for what really could have been any amount of time before getting interrupted by Isabelle.

"Oh for Christ sake," she said. "I leave you guys alone for five minutes and you're rolling around on the floor together."

Jace turned to glare at her. "Shut up, Isabelle. Leave us alone."

"Did you not hear what I just said? It's me and Simon's turn."

"Um," Simon said awkwardly. "Hey guys. Apart from the mental scarring, it's nice seeing you."

Jace closed his eyes. "Lord give me patience."

Clary laughed and got up, and Jace followed suit.

"Well, it's been fun," Jace told Simon and Isabelle, taking Clary by the hand and starting to drag her away.

"Hey, in case you were planning on whisking her off to your bedroom, think again." Isabelle told her. "Because Maryse wants to talk to you."

Clary turned to look at her boyfriend, and giggled at his tormented expression. "Are you good to come with?"

Jace sighed. "I swear one of these days I am going to systematically murder everyone in this house."

Clary sat on the edge of her bed, anxiously checking the time on her phone. The chat with Maryse had been fairly uneventful. There had been the expected stuff: train regularly, no partying, get up early, don't kill yourself during missions, and of course, the boyfriend talk.

"Your Mom seemed concerned about you and Jace in particular," Maryse had told her. "Personally, I'd be lying if I said that it really bothered me, so as long as I don't see anything- or hear anything- I won't have anything to tell. You understand?"

Clary smiled. In her peripheral vision, Jace looked like he was restraining himself from fist pumping or something. "Absolutely."

After they'd left Maryse's office, Jace turned and pinned her up against the wall.

"So I'll be seeing you tonight then?" He whispered in her ear.

"If you're lucky I'll remember to leave my door unlocked," she grinned up at him.

He kissed her quickly before drawing away.

It was 10:48. Clary sighed. She knew he'd be there soon, but she was going crazy waiting for him. Sex did strange things to a person.

She lay back on the bed and closed her eyes.

"Well," a voice said. "Not the enthusiastic greeting I was expecting, but it'll do."

"Jace!" She gasped, sitting up. "Jesus, you gave me a heart attack. How did you even get in here so quietly?"

He shrugged. "You heard what Maryse said. She can't hear anything, or she'll get us in trouble. And believe me, Clary, I have no intention of getting caught tonight."

She held her arms out. "Come here."

He didn't need to be told twice. In half a second flat he was on her bed, and they were completely intertwined. His lips were hot against hers.

"You know," she said. "I'm almost beginning to feel like you had ulterior motives when you encouraged me to come stay here."

She felt him laugh against her. She leaned back on the pillows, and he readjusted himself so he was completely on top of her. Soon, his shirt was on the floor, and so was hers. Suddenly, Jace pulled back.

"Hey!" Clary said indignantly, taken a bit by surprise.

"Remember how today I said you were brilliant?" Jace asked.

"Sure. It was right before we ended up on the floor."

"Well I meant it. You are brilliant," he told her. "And I will never be able to tell you how much I love you in a million years."

"You're making a good start," whispered Clary and pulled him back against her. And neither of them needed to say another word to each other that night. They knew how they felt about each other, and they showed each other in their kisses. And it felt so wonderful, Clary thought as Jace started kissing her neck, to be so completely assured in his love for her. To know that no matter what, she would always be capable of loving him back, fully and wholeheartedly. And so they continued into one more perfect night.