A/N: Helloo! Okay, this is not a DLF update (obviously, lol) but it has done the job of getting me back into the writing. So, I hope you like this chapter. Important A/N regarding a partner story for this. Mhm, a partner story.

The song used in this chapter is Running by James Bay.


Jace furrowed his eyebrows as he flipped through the channels. He tilted his head back on the suede red couch that he and Clary had in their LA studio apartment. He hated it until the movers placed in their living room and he saw that it immediately complimented the dark brown wooden floors. Clary smirked in accomplishment, knowing she was right. Now, it was a staple to their apartment, and used constantly.

It was where they wrote, where they slept when they were too tired to make it to their rooms, and where they watched an endless amount of movies and tv shows.

He heard the familiar squeak of Clary's bedroom door opening. The music she was playing spilled out like a flood and reverberated in the living room and kitchen area. It was only Monday, but Jace knew which album she was going to be repeating that week. Clary had a different album or group that she listened to. It changed weekly, mostly, but it could also make its way into the various albums or songs that she played constantly. This week, it was James Bay's EP, Let It Go. And, along with Clary, Jace would listen. He would learn the lyrics, the music, and sing it on his own time, everywhere he went. Jace listened to whatever Clary listened to since they met. She was his only way to find out music. And, the moment they were hired on the show, after being excited for the new chapter of their lives, Clary became determined to befriend whoever was in charge of the music on the show. It was heaven for Clary to get new albums weekly. A dream come true for her.

"Clary, look at this show. Look how—" Jace started and began to look over his right shoulder.

"Don't!" Clary yelled out. "Do not turn around."

Jace rolled his eyes. When he first looked at an inopportune time, Clary was in her underwear, running to the bathroom. Only he wasn't the only one looking. Three of the guys in his workshop group for a class at NYU were there with him. That was years ago, when they first moved into their apartment in New York City. So, as the years passed, Jace had grown tired of her running around in her underwear and then yelling at him as if it was his fault that she was taking the risk of sprinting half naked.

When my heart is ready to burst

When the world spins in reverse

I'll keep running

To the place where I belong

Jace leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling. It was Clary's favorite song on the record, so she played it over and over the whole morning.

When you go, turn down the light

No one's here to hold you in the night

I'll keep running

To the place where I belong

"Okay," Clary said, and Jace turned to face her as she stepped out of the bathroom. She was pulling her hair up into a messy bun. "You heading out?"

"Yup," Jace said, with a pop at the end. He pointed the remote at the TV, turning it off, and let it fall out of his hands onto the couch. It bounced off and fell to the floor. Jace's eyebrows went up in guilty surprise, and he looked up to see Clary roll her eyes. She stepped into her room, stopped the music, and walked out with her purse and the CD, holding it out to Jace.

"I figured you'd wanna borrow it."

"You know me so well." He grinned, taking it from her fingers.

"Better than yourself."

"Well, I can't deny that," Jace said, grabbing his wallet and car keys from the kitchen island. He switched off the light and locked the door, turning to find Clary waiting for him at the top of the staircase, texting someone. "Where you heading?" The two walked down the steps, Jace holding onto Clary's elbow to guide her as she kept her attention on her phone.

"Izzy," Clary told him, stuffing her phone back into her purse. "We're meeting at the coffee shop and then doing some shopping. She's nervous."

"You aren't?"

"Um, that's why I agreed to join her," Clary said, walking before Jace towards their cars, which were parked beside each other.

"It'll do great," Jace reassured her. He bit his lip and she turned, catching him. "Alright, so I'm nervous too."

"Where are you going?" Clary asked, raising an eyebrow. Jace knew that the eyebrow suggested that he was going to meet up with Kaelie so he could "forget about the stress."

"Meeting up with Simon," Jace said, and Clary looked surprised. "He's nervous too. So having a beer or two it is."

"Right," Clary said, opening her door. "Well, be—"

"Careful." Jace gave a nod. "I will."

"See you tonight." Clary got into her car. "You bringing anyone?"

"Just Simon. You?"

"Isabelle," Clary said, then shrugged. "Maybe Dylan."

"I'm sure he wants to watch the reason why you don't have time for him," Jace said, and Clary shook her head, but smiled while she did it. "I'll grab a couple of six packs on the way home."

"Sounds good."

Clary rolled down her window. It may have been a nice Autumn day for LA, but the September weather reminded them of summer nights back in Connecticut, and he knew Clary missed being home. Clary turned the key, and the engine roared the car into life.

"I need to check out your car soon," Jace said, making a face at Clary's car.

"I know," Clary sulked. "Whenever you do, tell me what you need and I'll buy it." Jace nodded. "Call me, okay? If the nervousness catches up with you."

"Will do," Jace replied. "Or maybe I'll hit up Kaelie."

Clary grinned. "Ew."

Jace laughed. "I'll call you. Do the same. And be home by—"

"Seven. I know. I wanna be settled in with our nerves before it starts too," Clary said, and stepped on the brake, putting her car into reverse. "See you, Wayland."

"Later, Fray." Jace put his hand in the air as he opened his car door, and Clary drove away, her music blasting from her car. Jace turned his car on, simultaneously putting on the CD and rolling down his window. He reached for his sunglasses and put them on, driving away.


Simon groaned, his forehead touching the bar.

"Lift your head up. The bar is probably filthy," Jace said, and Simon lifted his head up slowly.

Jace passed him a napkin and Simon rolled his eyes, wiping his forehead. "I don't know if I've ever invested this much into a role."

"The Brooklyn boy in you wants it to be perfect," Jace told him.

"The Jew in me doesn't know why I'm playing an Italian," Simon muttered, and Jace smirked. The two looked down at their beers. Simon glanced at a quiet Jace. "I know you and Clary have invested just as much into this."

Jace looked at him and took a swig of his beer. "Yeah. It leads up to this."

"You guys did amazing," Simon reassured him.

"So did you and Isabelle." Simon gave a nod. "Plus, the pilot made you cool as hell. Girls walked in there looking at you like you were just a good looking nerd with glasses, but, when they left, it was like they wanted you to beat their brothers with a bat."

Simon smiled and gave Jace a weird look once he mentioned the bat. "Thanks?"

"I'm just saying that not only will this change my and Clary's lives, it'll change yours and Isabelle's. These roles are great for you. A good change from your usual 'guy best friend' role and a twist on Isabelle's usual 'hottest girl in school' role." Jace slapped Simon on the back. "It'll be great."

Simon nodded and then had some of his beer, almost drinking it halfway through. "Where did you come up with this, anyway? You and Clary. Were you in the mafia?"

"Clary is in the Irish mafia." Simon stared at Jace. "Just kidding."

"I'd believe you if you weren't," Simon said, and Jace smiled.

Jace shrugged. "Clary always loved mafia movies, for some reason. She started the initial idea of how he was secretly in the mafia. I came up with the back story—the best friends part." Jace looked at Simon. "She does the plot and imagery. I do the dialogue. It's how we've always done it."

"And you're sure that you two haven't dated or had feelings for each other?" Simon asked. It was probably the third time he had asked since Jace met him a year ago after he got the part.

"No, Simon," Jace responded as if he had been asked this a million times. Because he had been asked about a million times. Maybe two. "Just best friends."

When Clary and Jace arrived in LA a month after they got the job, everyone thought they were a writing team that was together. They had to explain it over and over that they were just best friends. Just best friends who met in fourth grade. Just best friends who first started writing stories together in fifth grade. They wrote through middle school, high school, and college together—a university that Clary dreamed of going to and got accepted to, and a university that made Jace pass up all other acceptances he got, Berkeley and Princeton included, so he could stay with her. He never let her know this, but he knew that he wouldn't have been able to get through school without Clary. They did everything together. How was he supposed to be okay if they went to different schools?

"How did you meet?" Simon asked, interrupting Jace's thoughts.

"You really wanna know?" Jace asked, raising an eyebrow.

Simon shrugged. "Yeah, it's taking my mind off the nervousness. So please, paint me a picture." Simon leaned back into his bar stool and smiled goofily.

"This is weird. I don't know where to start," Jace mumbled after a few seconds.

"Well, how did you become best friends?" Simon asked, giving him somewhere to start.

"When I moved." Simon inclined his head, as if to ask for more. "I moved to Connecticut with my mom and her new husband Stephen. We lived in New York City before that, but my dad never had time for us, so..." Jace trailed off, and Simon's eyes asked for more. "He worked on Wall Street."

"The Clary part, Jace. The Clary part."

"She hated me."

Simon leaned forward, interested.

Jace looked down into his beer bottle. "I moved there in fourth grade, and she was quiet. Best writer in the class. Annoyingly so." Jace smirked. "Until I came around, and she hated me for it. It was what she was good at, and she never had competition on who was the best in it, so." Jace shrugged.

"So, what did you do, since she hated you?"

"What every nine-year-old boy would do. Annoy her," Jace said with a shrug. "I sat with her every day. She didn't have many friends, but I had a feeling that it was because she didn't want them anyway."

"How obnoxious of you."

"She was the only one I liked in that school. It was some elitist school, for these ultra competitive kids. I mean, we were kids." Jace shook his head a little. "Anyway, I sat with her every day at lunch. And requested to sit with her in class." Jace grinned. "And asked to do my writing assignments along with her." He chuckled. "It was great. She hated me so much."

Simon took a deep breath and looked away. "Poor Clary."

Jace began to pick at his beer bottle's cover. "But I knew it was also because she knew we connected. She knew it the same way I did, and she hated that the connection was with me."

"Because you were so obnoxious?"

"No. Because I was popular." Jace leaned back. "My mom put me in all these sports programs, and I looked like a version of all this"—Jace pointed at himself— "so, I mean, I was popular."

Simon ignored Jace's ego. "Did you hate her too?"

Jace looked down. "No." He gave a laugh. "She was the only one in that school I wanted to be friends with. She's the only one I tried for. Ever."

"Why?"

"I don't know. There was a pull towards her."

"I thought you two didn't like each other," Simon pointed out.

"I didn't like her," Jace said, making a face at Simon. "I felt a pull towards her, I don't know, in life. Or something like that." He paused. "Like she was my soulmate."

"But—"

"Soulmates don't need to be romantic to be soulmates."

Simon nodded, understanding this. He put his elbows on the bar, then looked up at the television broadcasting an afternoon TV show. Jace looked away, feeling the relief that Simon seemed to be done with the topic. Jace always ended up getting annoyed trying to explain the connection he and Clary had. He always had trouble making them understand that it wasn't romantic. He looked up, watching along with Simon, ignoring the annoyance altogether.


Simon and Jace looked over their shoulders at the front door when they heard the it unlock.

Clary poked her head in, and Jace narrowed his eyes. "I said seven, not—"

"I know; I'm late," Clary interrupted Jace. "But this one took too long," Clary added, opening the door wide, and Isabelle waved, Dylan on the other side.

Dylan put a hand in the air. "I did nothing to make us late," he defended himself.

Jace stared at Dylan for a moment as he awkwardly smiled at him. He liked Dylan. He got along with Dylan. He was the only one of Clary's boyfriends that he ever liked. It wasn't that he was jealous of them—either the guy hated him because he and Clary were so close, or Jace didn't trust him, and he was too overprotective to let Clary date a mediocre guy. Clary and Dylan had only been dating for half a year, but Jace approved of him, and he saw that they maybe they could last. Dylan was laid back, and not overbearing. He was hilarious, and easy to get along with. Dylan was cool. Almost as cool as Clary was. And Jace could picture Dylan in their future.

"Dylan deserves a beer. Dylan, come," Jace said, holding up the beer, and Dylan walked in, sticking out his tongue at the two girls.

Clary walked inside, pulling Isabelle in with her. "Next week, we will bring the food and the beer, okay?" Clary threw her keys on the table, along with her purse, and Isabelle did the same.

Dylan was already sitting beside Jace, right in the middle of the couch, facing the TV. Clary plopped down beside Dylan, and Jace handed her a beer. Isabelle sat beside Simon, who sat on the loveseat. She pulled out her phone and held it out to take a picture of them. She looked down and began typing away. "Are you live tweeting too?" Isabelle asked Simon as he looked down at her phone.

He reached for his phone on the coffee table. "'Course."

"Alright, I'm ready for this," Dylan stated. Clary and Jace looked at him; he was sitting in the middle of them. "What?" They looked at each other. "Oh, god. This show is gonna ruin my life, isn't it?"

Jace turned from Dylan and faced him again, holding up a big lime green bowl. "Chips?"


A/N: Did you guys like it? Let me know if you did! Please leave some reviews & inspiration :)

I know that Clace is very much just friends in this so far, and for most of the story, but just know this is in the POV of Jace. So what he sees/thinks, is what you will be reading in the chapters.

Okay, so the partner story. I came up with an intriguing plot for the TV show and I was a bit upset that it wasn't going to be completely written out. I didn't want the TV show to take too much of the focus since this whole thing is Jace's POV. Sooo, I decided to write a whole different story for it. It will be a Simon and Isabelle story, since they are starring in the TV shows, and their names will be different. Simon's name will be Carter. I'm honestly not sure about Isabelle yet. Their names will be what they are in the TV show. So basically, whenever the episode comes out in Words, a chapter will come out for the TV show story. It will be like you're watching the episode that airs in the Words chapters. I hope that makes sense. I can't explain it articulately, lol. Anyway, I hope you guys are as excited as I am by this partner story going on. Oh, and the TV show/story name will be titled Brooklyn Carter.

My DLF loves, I'm finally feeling up to writing. So I will be working on the Brooklyn Carter chapter, since it has to be posted pretty close to whenever these chapters are posted, then I'm going to work on DLF. Hopefully it will be posted this week! I'll really be trying to. Also, DYLAN. Yes, this is that Dylan. I brought him here. I had to utilize him somewhere, so here he is.


Thank you to anyone who reviewed, favorited and alerted the first chapter! It really meant so much to me, and it helped in motivating me to just jump back into writing. Shout out to rippingbutterflywings, WeAreDustAndShadows & Cheyashton! I hope you guys enjoy this and continue to like where it is heading :)

Shout out to rippingbutterflywings! You are amazing. Seriously. An amazing beta and even more amazing friend. Thank you so much for the support, always.