Watching Jace squint to read was cute when he was reading the back of a bottle of Aspirin or the fine print on a form. He'd scrunch his nose and his eyebrows furrowed until their was a little crease between them. When he'd squint to read his paperwork for hours with a perfectly good pair of reading glasses sitting on his desk, it was just annoying.
Clary knew the glasses were an adjustment and that Jace was having a hard time accepting that he needed them, but his refusal was getting ridiculous. Straining his eyesight by trying to read the Clave forms wasn't going to reverse the demon venom's effect, if anything it was going to make it worse.
It had been a full month since the demon attack, and Jace was lucky his biggest problem was his new trouble reading small print. According to the medics, if they had administered the antidote just an hour later the lasting effects of the venom would have been a lot worse. Some people went completely blind from shax venom, but they got Jace help early enough that the effects were only minor.
Clary couldn't tell if he was just too stubborn or too vain to admit it effected him at all. At first, it didn't really seem to bother him. He took the results of his vision screening in stride and asked for her opinion on his new glasses frames. He used them for a week before he started to conveniently "forget" where he put them and insisting he didn't need them anyway.
Now, his glasses sat abandoned at the edge of his desk while Jace poured over his papers, and Clary was sick of waiting for him to come to bed. She climbed out from under her covers and came up behind him, rubbing his shoulders as she peered over his head.
"Almost done?" She knew the answer already. Half of the work was done, but it would easily take him another hour if he continued to struggle through it.
Jace brought his next page up closer to his face to read it. "I'm getting there. I've just got this headache that's making it hard to focus on anything." They both knew it was a lie, but Clary knew from experience that pointing it out would only cause an argument.
He reached up and laid his hand over hers on his shoulder. His callused thumb brushed lightly across her knuckles.
Clary bent down and pressed a soft peck to his cheek. "I know something that might help you focus." She let her free hand wander across his chest. If he wanted to be stubborn, she'd just play dirty. She knew exactly what he liked, and she wasn't above using it to her advantage.
Gentle, teasing touches would go a long way in taking down his defenses. A few strategic kisses along his jaw, and the brush of her lips along the shell of his ear did the trick. Jace relaxed into her touch, and his head turned to press their foreheads together.
The warmth of his breath brushed against her skin as he let out a soft laugh. "I hope this isn't your plan," he teased, his voice low and seductive. His lips brushed against hers, but they weren't kissing just yet. "Because this is very distracting."
Clary pulled her hand away but made sure to keep his attention on her as she reached for the glasses resting on the edge of the desk. "It's not. I have a much better idea." She poked him in the chest with her idea. "You're going to make it worse if you don't start wearing these."
His reaction was instantaneous. Jace deflated and grabbed the glasses out of her hand. Clary let him go and straightened up when he pushed her away. Usually the rejection would have stung, but tonight she expected it. "I don't need them. I just have a headache." He toyed with the arms of the black frames, collapsing them just to open them back up.
"Then you've had a headache every night this week," Clary pointed out. "I don't understand why you suddenly won't wear them. Are they too small? Are they not helping? Do you think you need different lenses?"
Jace tossed them onto his desk top and leaned back in his chair. He wouldn't look up at Clary, but he did angle himself in her direction. He sat with one elbow propped on the desktop, and his head in his hand. He almost looked like he had an actual headache. "They're fine. I just don't like them."
"But why?" Clary turned and sat on the desk, the edge dug uncomfortably into the back of her bare legs.
"Because I don't," Jace sighed.
"I'm not letting this go until you give me an actual answer, so you might as well just tell me."
The only person on the planet more stubborn than Jace was sitting right next to him, and they both knew it. Clary was going to get her answer or he would be having this conversation every night for the rest of his natural life.
The reality of the situation festered for a moment before Jace confessed. "I saw myself in the mirror. You know you could have told me that I look like an awkward 18 year old in these things." He pointed the glasses in her direction.
Clary pushed the glasses away. "You don't look awkward. Even if you did I'm the only one that sees them. Why do you care so much?"
"Because I know what I look like and it bothers me." Jace unfolded the his glasses and put them on. He gestured towards his face. "Can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me you find me attractive right now?"
She couldn't hold back her smile. "You want my honest opinion?" Clary stood up and slid into his lap. Jace's deskchair creaked under both their weight, but she wasn't worried. The two of them tested the chair's limits regularly without any consequences so far. Jace wrapped his arms around her waist to keep her in place. "I think you look beyond sexy." She slid her fingers along the back of his neck and played with his hair.
Jace leaned into her touch like he did before. "It's a hell of a lot harder to believe you after the your little trick a minute ago." He ran his hand up the bare skin of her thigh. His fingertips brushed against the hem of her sleep shorts.
"I swear on the angel I'm telling the truth," Clary vowed, and it was the truth. She took her job seriously when he asked her to help him pick the frames. The blue of his eyes looked a little brighter surrounded by the stylish black design. She wasn't sure how, but the scruff along his jaw even seemed a little darker. "You're giving off some serious sexy professor vibes." The answering smile starting to tug at his lips was enough for her to know she won.
Clary leaned down and left a lingering kiss on his lips. "You're not playing fair tonight at all," He sighed. Behind his glasses, Jace kept his eyes closed. Clary nipped at his lower lip and pulled him in for another kiss.
It was Clary's turn to be disappointed when Jace pulled away. "Hold on," He took his glasses off and before Clary's protest could even make its way past her lips, he held up a finger to silence her. "I'll wear them, you win. I just want to try something." Jace held them out to Clary and slid them into place on her.
Everything in the room went slightly fuzzy the second the lenses went in front of her eyes. "What are you doing?" She laughed as Jace tucked her hair behind her ear.
Jace kissed along her throat before he answered. "Maybe I have a thing for sexy professors too," He whispered against the shell of her ear, sending shivers down her spine. Her eyes fell on the abandoned paperwork laying in front of them.
"Babe, you need to finish this work for Alec," Clary gently pushed him back by his shoulder and gave him back his glasses. "And when you're done, you can come to bed, and I can put you to work myself."
Jace shook his head and kissed the tip of Clary's nose. "You're such a tease." He let her off his lap.
"If I wasn't you'd never be motivated to do anything," She reminded him on her way back to their bed. She turned as she climbed back under the covers and saw Jace watching her. "Turn around and get to work, or I'll start without you."
Jace turned back around and groaned. "I'll get it done, I promise," he called back to her. This time when he bent back over his paperwork, his eyebrows furrowed with concentration and not with strain.