Notes/Disclaimer: This fanfiction is based on the characters and settings of the Shadowhunters TV show, however, it's set in a human/mundane alternate universe.

A coffee shop AU featuring Clace, Malec, fangirl Clary and barista Jace-who is endlessly amused by Clary's interest in Magnus and Alec's romance.

My attempt at writing about shipping and how easy it is to become invested in fictional romances and stories. :)

The song War of Hearts by Ruelle is referred to in later chapters.

Clace?

Clary Fray sat back in her seat at The Half-Moon, the coffee shop she'd discovered about a half hour ago as she walked around the streets of Brooklyn, where she'd been getting a little fresh air after her last class of the week.

The coffee shop was a cool mix quirky and cozy, which is what had drawn her to it when she first spotted it less than an hour ago. The tables, chairs and wooden floor were plain and simple, but the dark blue walls were decorated with interesting paintings and various sophisticated photographs of the city skyline at night; there were candles on the tables (although Clary was pretty sure that they were artificial, as not one of them showed any hint of a flicker of a flame); and there was a piano in the far corner (although, to Clary's disappointment, it didn't look like the piano had been played for a while).

She let out a sigh as she brushed a stray strand of red hair out of her eyes. The coffee shop might look nice, but it was kind of warm inside. Warm enough that she didn't need to be wearing her leather jacket, but the jacket had once belonged to her mom when she was younger and it made her feel more comfortable, more secure. Although she couldn't help wishing that she'd worn her hair up today, the way she usually did when she had classes at the Brooklyn Academy of Art, or when she was using the school's art studios to work on projects, pretty much always favoring practicality over appearance.

With that thought in her head, she tried to focus on the sketchpad and the notes about her latest assignments from college which currently covered the surface of her table, instead of staring over at the man sitting straight ahead from her, at a table by the window.

She'd first seen him while she was waiting in line to order her drink a couple minutes ago, where he'd been looking cool with his dark hair styled into spikes, several rings on his fingers, earrings in his ears and beads around his neck. He was wearing a black shirt and expensive-looking jeans decorated with just a little glitter, and he definitely looked like he'd applied eyeliner. He'd also been wearing a lost-in-thought expression that briefly made him look older than she was sure he was, but then he'd seen her looking at him and he'd smiled politely, which had made him look young again. In fact, he looked just like the type of unique person who usually inspired her paintings or sketches of various interesting people who she encountered in the city.

The man had even let Clary go ahead of him in the line, waving her past with another friendly smile, which had kind of been a relief to Clary, as she'd been almost at the point of getting swallowed up in the crowd of late afternoon customers that mainly consisted of loud college guys, guys who Clary had only been able to describe as 'frat boys'-in her own private thoughts, anyway. She would have had no chance of getting past them all without the mysterious stranger's help, and her faith that at least some people in the world were kind had been restored a little.

Right now, though, her dubious faith in humanity would have to wait, because she had other stuff to focus on. She'd told herself that the point of heading to a coffee shop this afternoon was because she needed a quiet space to work, away from the girls who lived in her dorm who were always obsessing over the latest guys they were dating and playing music at the highest volume before they headed out to party in the city.

But she also couldn't help feeling like she needed a quiet space away from real life in general right now, too; a break from all the stuff that was bothering her…

She might have only spent a semester at art school, but she already felt like she didn't really fit in there. She loved all her classes, but outside of class, it seemed like the other students were so much…cooler than she was; less awkward and more in tune with the real world.

Clary had a feeling that if her dorm mates ever discovered that she spent most of her free time sketching pictures of supernatural creatures and various imaginary couples from all the books and TV series she was obsessed with, and then uploading perfected versions of those drawings onto a site dedicated to fan art, where she and her best friend shared a joint fan account, they would probably think that she was even more strange than they already did.

Back at high school, Clary had always had her best friend, Simon, to hang out with and talk to about their problems, and Simon shared in her nerdiness and her passion for drawing fan art, while she shared his passion for music.

She'd kind of assumed that their closeness would continue after high school, but since they'd both moved away from their old neighbourhood to start college, all of the pretty girls in Brooklyn had suddenly seemed to decide that they were actually turned on by the whole 'geeky guy' thing, because Simon had rapidly and inexplicably turned into a 'babe magnet' (Simon's words, not hers) almost overnight, meaning that Clary usually had to take second place to whichever girl Simon happened to be dating, and the two of them didn't spend as much time together as they used to.

She was also missing her mom so much now that she'd moved out of the apartment that she and her mother had shared for all of Clary's life, so she could be more 'independent' by living in a dorm. She was happy that her mom was building a new life with her new boyfriend, Luke, especially when her mom had been so heartbroken after Clary's dad walked out on the two of them for good a few years ago, but it had been just the two of them for so long, and now Clary kind of worried that she and her mom were drifting apart as they started living their new lives.

Then there was the fact that she hadn't heard from her dad for months. Clary was almost done with being the one who constantly had to track him down and make the effort to stay in touch.

With another sigh, she tried to concentrate on her sketchbook again, reminding herself that she needed to work. She had another, more personal sketchbook in her backpack, too- the one that she used for her sketches of various couples and interesting characters who she'd encountered in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and all her drawings of supernatural creatures and characters from a lot of her favorite series. Ever since she was a kid, Clary had always been drawn to anything fictional that focused on the supernatural. After a while she kind of figured that it was based on this inner desire to escape the mundaneness of every day life-to maybe open a portal or a secret door into a different world. It was too bad that that could never happen in reality.

Along with the sketchbooks, there were at least three novels in her backpack about ghosts, vampires and werewolves (she was always reading at least three fantasy novels at any one time), but she resisted the temptation to open the backpack to find any of them. The last thing she needed was yet another distraction.

Unable to help herself, Clary stole another glance at the man at the table by the window. He'd seemed so calm and confident when he'd been waiting in line to order his drink, but now he definitely looked nervous. He kept fidgeting in his seat, folding and unfolding his arms, crossing and uncrossing his legs, his eyes darting around the room the whole time, like he was looking for someone.

After a couple of minutes, Clary noticed him taking out his phone. She couldn't help smiling to herself as she saw that the phone cover was decorated with what looked like sequins and diamonds. She kind of felt like a phone cover like that was typical of this guy, even though she didn't know him personally. As he checked his phone, Clary decided that he was probably waiting for someone who hadn't arrived yet, and she couldn't help wondering who that 'someone' was. Whoever they were, they definitely meant something to this man, if his tense body language and the nervous tapping of his foot were anything to go by.

A few seconds later, the door to the coffee shop opened and a tall man with dark hair and tanned skin walked in. The man was young-he only looked a couple of years older than Clary-and he was very attractive, although he didn't seem to realise how attractive he was, going by the way he shuffled into the room with his head down and his shoulders hunched, like he wanted the room to swallow him up, like he wanted to disappear. His clothes were plain and simple, a casual black jeans and T-shirt combination, almost like he didn't want to stand out in any way, and his hairstyle was a little careless, a little messy, even. Not that his slightly messy hair did anything to take anyone's attention away from his good looks.

Yet this tall, dark and handsome man didn't even notice that most of the customers waiting to pay for their drinks, both women and men, were either looking him up and down, blatantly checking him out, or simply watching him intently, as though mesmerized by how handsome he was.

He only looked up from the floor when one of the female customers (one of the few people in the room who seemed to be unaffected by the guy's attractiveness) called out, "Hey, Alec!", smiling and waving at him with a familiarity that suggested that she was a friend of his.

"Hey, Maia," Alec responded with a half-grin and a sort-of wave in her direction, sounding a little nervous and a little shy.

The second Maia had called out Alec's name, the man sitting at the table by the window quickly looked up, and Clary could tell by the way his eyes fixed on Alec, and the way his face suddenly took on an intense expression, and the way he sat up a little straighter, like he was really paying attention now, that this is who he had been waiting for.

Clary really didn't know much about real-life romance, but she guessed that the two of them were probably meeting here for a date, especially when Alec blushed as he caught sight of the guy by the window. She felt her heart beat a little faster with excitement, almost as though she was somehow sharing in a part of their date, even though that idea was crazy.

Almost tripping over on a couple of stairs that bridged the gap between the front door to the coffee shop and the tables along the way, Alec eventually walked over to the table by the window, and the man stood up as he approached, holding out his hands in greeting.

"Alexander," he smiled when Alec arrived at the table, and Clary decided that she liked the way this man used Alec's full name. It somehow sounded more intimate, more affectionate, more of a personal thing between the two of them.

"Magnus," Alec mumbled in reply, tripping over the word a little as he blushed an even darker shade of red.

Magnus, Clary repeated to herself as Magnus grinned at Alec. The name was perfect for him. It just seemed to suit him, and it made him even cooler than he already was-in Clary's eyes, anyway.

Magnus and Alec she said to herself. It was perfect. They were perfect. Perfect for each other.

This is what Clary always did with couples and potential couples, even though she kind of wished that she could tone it down a little sometimes when it came to love and romance. However, most of her favorite couples-or 'ships', as she referred to them when she was around her fellow lover of fictional worlds, Simon- were just that, fictional, taken straight from a book or a movie or a TV show; but every now and again, she came across a couple in her real life who she just knew had to end up together.

Over on the other side of the room, Alec still looked kind of terrified, but he allowed Magnus to remove his leather jacket for him and drape it over an empty seat, and then he managed to sit down awkwardly at the table opposite Magnus, and he took a sip of the coffee that Magnus offered him.

Clary knew that she should stop listening in on Alec and Magnus's conversation now, especially as she'd heard so many accusations in the past from her father and even Simon of 'meddling' and 'getting way too involved in other people's business', but she still couldn't help glancing over at them every now and again.

Alec still looked pretty scared, as he blushed and stuttered his way through the first few minutes of their date, or else he just went completely silent, looking like he didn't know what to say.

"I-I'm sorry," he eventually stammered, sounding a little breathless, "I don't know what I'm doing. I…uh…I've never done this-the whole dating thing before-and uh, yeah, you know that already, and I'm not goo-"

Clary noticed that his hand trembled as he placed his cup of coffee back down on the table.

"Relax, Alexander," Magnus replied smoothly with a reassuring smile, looking nowhere near as nervous. "You're doing fine...perfect, in fact."

You're perfect, he might as well have added, given the way he was looking at Alec.

Clary felt a rush of affection as she realized that this must be this guy Alec's first date ever. She'd never been on an actual date before, either (and she was pretty sure that all of her time spent with Simon didn't count, even though everyone they knew always seemed to assume that they were a couple), so she could only imagine how scary this must be for Alec, especially when his first date was with someone who was as confident as Magnus seemed to be.

Although she had a feeling that Magnus wouldn't care what Alec did on their date-he just seemed to be so happy to actually be on a date with Alec. He even looked relieved, kind of. Clary wondered if they had gone through a lot already just to get to this point.

As she glanced over at Magnus again, who was looking at Alec across their table with a look of blatant adoration on his face, Clary couldn't help feeling a little envious of Alec. Deep down, she wished that a guy would look at her the way that Magnus looked at Alec.

"Aren't they adorable? Aren't they amazing?"

Clary was startled out of her thoughts at the sound of a man's voice from just behind her, the tone of voice full of sarcasm.

She looked over her shoulder to see one of the male baristas standing behind her, with a sarcastic smirk on his face, and a hand placed mockingly over his heart.

His eyes kept flickering from Magnus and Alec to Clary, looking like he was trying not to laugh the whole time, his actions enough to let her know that he found her apparent interest in the attraction between these two men amusing. The name tag clipped to this guy's plain white work shirt revealed that his name was Jace.

Clary knew that objectively, this guy was hot; he was tall, and toned, and muscular, with blond hair and what looked like splashes of gold in his eyes, and his arms were covered in tattoos of various words in other languages and symbols.

However, as hot as he was, Clary was instantly reminded of all the jocks back at her high school who'd gone out of their way to make her and Simon's life hell; the ones who'd been rude and shallow and obsessed with nothing more than their appearance, and working out at the gym or on the football field, and hitting on all the pretty girls.

As she thought about the guys from high school, Clary felt an irrational rush of irritation towards this guy, Jace, as well as feeling weirdly embarrassed by his mockery, and she couldn't help glaring at him as a result.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Clary replied to him as she folded her arms, trying to look cool, aloof, disinterested, and not like she'd just been caught out. She wondered if the room had gone even warmer than before, because she felt a flush creep to her cheeks, and her hands felt a little clammy.

"Sure you don't," he replied with another smirk and a very annoying wink, and Clary wondered why she got this strange urge to blush. She decided it must be because she was still feeling embarrassed about getting caught staring over at Magnus and Alec.

Clary continued to glare at Jace until he shrugged and walked away to clean a couple tables, grinning the whole time.

When she was alone, she let out a few irritated huffs and mumbled something about guys being jerks before she focused on her college work again, trying to be a lot more discreet about looking up over her sketchpad every few minutes to see how Magnus's and Alec's first date was progressing.

After a little while, she briefly left her table to go take a bathroom break. When she returned, she noticed that there was a fresh cup of coffee waiting for her on the table. She frowned to herself in confusion; she couldn't remember ordering another coffee.

In the end, she shrugged and drank it, vowing to offer to pay for it if turned out that she'd been given someone else's coffee by mistake.

She felt a little better as she finished her coffee and returned to her work. Magnus and Alec were still here on their date, with Magnus doing enough talking for the two of them, and the coffee had tasted even better than her first one.

Sure, she might have felt a little embarrassed earlier at getting caught by Jace staring at the two men, but it wasn't like she was ever going to come back to this coffee shop and see him again, right?