Clary woke up to a pounding on the door and the loud yelling of Isabelle. "Clary wake up! We need to go!" She felt Jace shift out of sleep and groan. She could tell the power was back on by the flashing alarm clock blinking 3 a.m., though the brightness of the outside light told her it was much later than that.

"I swear, I'm going to kill her," Jace muttered under his breath. She smirked and reluctantly left the warmth of the bed and Jace's arms to get ready to leave. She was brushing through her curly hair when Jace came behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"You know you don't have to go," he said quietly, burying his face into her hair. She set the brush down.

"Yes I do," Clary sighed, giving into her inner demons and leaning into him. If she was going shopping with Izzy all day she would take as much time as she wanted.

"Izzy can deal with it if you don't want to go shopping with her."

"Well," Clary said quietly. "If you want me to get a black dress I'm going to have to go." Clary felt him sigh.

"Don't you have a black dress?"

"For what reason would I possibly have a black dress?"

"I thought all girls did," he muttered.

"Well this one doesn't, which means you should find something too."

"You never actually told me what you wanted me to wear," he pointed out.

"I'm sure you'll think of something," she teased and turned around to face him.

"I'm sure I will, but I will need to see you're dress first," Jace said slowly as though clarifying something. He hooked a finger under her chin and brought her up for a kiss which was interrupted when Isabelle began to yell.

"CLARY! HURRY UP!"

Jace drew back and sighed, "Promise you'll pick something that covers yourself up." Clary was genuinely surprised by this comment. Usually he wanted her to wear as less clothing as possible.

"Who are you and what have you done with Jace?" she pulled away from him and his eyes lit up with amusement.

"I'm not going to have a bunch of stupid ass guys staring at you all night," he stated rather matter-of-factly.

"They won't be staring at me."

"Yes they will. I know it. I can only beat up so many people in one night, Clary. I'm only half god." Clary laughed at this statement and began making her way slowly to the door to go downstairs.

"And what about the girls who will be staring at you?"

"I can't help it if I'm attractive," he replied taking a step towards her.

"But I'm not allowed to wear a nice dress?" Jace smirked.

"Fine, you win."

"I generally do." Jace laughed and shook his head. Something boiled up inside Clary. A pure joy overwhelmed her senses. She ran up to Jace, standing on her tip toes and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around her neck as she wrapped his around her neck. She pulled back when she heard Isabelle scream her name out again.

"Wow," Jace said.

"I'll see you later, angel boy," she said hurrying out of the door, the sound of his laugh filling her ears.

Pandemonium…Pandemonium

"I've tried on hundreds of dresses, Izzy. No more!" Clary sighed leaning against the nearest wall.

"We haven't found a good one yet." Despite Clary's request that the dress was supposed to be black, she had made Clary try on nearly every dress in the three stores that they went to.

"I told you I liked a bunch of them," Clary sat down while Isabelle continued to rummage through some of the dresses.

"They weren't perfect though."

"They don't have to be perfect, Iz. You haven't even found a dress." Isabelle turned to face the disgruntled girl who was now sitting down back against a blank wall. She could be so stupid sometimes, not even realizing what was right in front of her.

"Yes it does. You're going with Jace." The mention of Jace made butterflies appear in her stomach.

"Jace doesn't care what I wear." Her voice shook and she chided herself inwardly.

"Maybe he doesn't tell you but you can see it in his eyes." Isabelle let out a groan when Clary gave her a confused look. "He loves you to death Clary you know that. When you walk into a room looking like you're going to look by the time I'm done with you he practically melt. How could you not see it?"

Clary's mouth fell open at such an outward statement, and she felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment. Isabelle simply laughed, shook her head, and went back to searching through the dresses. She held out a red one for Clary to look at.

"Isabelle, I told you. It has to be black." Isabelle ignored her statement so Clary stated again louder. "Isabelle. Only black dresses or I'm leaving and finding one on my own." Isabelle turned and stared her down. Clary's emerald eyes met Isabelle's and she felt a surge of satisfaction when Isabelle stopped looking through the brightly colored dresses to find one of a darker color.

Pandemonium…Pandemonium

"Hey," Jace said entering the kitchen to find Simon sitting reading some comics and Alec eating some cereal at the table. "What are you two wearing to that party thing?" They both raised their eyebrows at him.

"Why does it matter?" It was Alex who spoke up.

"Excuse me for being curious," Jace said flippantly, trying to divert them off asking too many questions.

"Dude, are you actually going?" Simon asked.

"We're all going. We might as well face our doom now," interrupted Alec.

"Yeah, besides," said Jace directing his attention towards Simon. "You know you want to see Isabelle in one of the shortest dresses imaginable dancing all night." Simons grip tightened on his fork.

"You act like you're not looking forward to seeing Clary," Alec pointed out.

"Well obviously I am."

"How long do you think they're going to be?" asked Simon, setting the newspaper down on the table.

"That excited to see what they're wearing?" Jace jeered. Simon rolled his eyes but said nothing. He was used to Jace's constant taunting by now.

"And what is the fabulous Jace Lightwood planning on wearing?" said Simon.

"I was thinking the same thing," said Alec eyeing Jace up and down.

"You know, you really need to stop siding with downworlders. It's getting on my nerves," he said making a point of looking directly at Alec and not anywhere near Simon.

"Not the point. What are you wearing, angel boy?" said Alec.

"I wish people would stop calling me that," Jace pulled back another chair near the table and sat in it roughly.

"Answer the question, then," said Simon.

"I don't know what I'm wearing," Jace sighed. "Does it matter? Geeze, we sound like a bunch of girls."

Alec shrugged and got up from his seat to put away his bowl. The three of them idled themselves with training and television shows until it started getting dark out. The three of them were sprawled out among the couple of couches set up in the living room when Isabelle and Clary walked in the front door.

Isabelle winked at Simon then went upstairs without a word. Jace took the time to notice Clary who only had one bag in hand compared to Isabelle's five. Her cheeks were still bright red from the cold outside, hair still tousled from the fierce October wind. The coat wrapped firmly around her to keep out the cold. She locked eyes with him for a moment and smiled before hurrying up the stairs behind Isabelle.

Author's Note time

Alrighty. So, as you can see the chapters won't be too long or dramatic if I'm going to be updating a lot. I know have a HUGE favor to ask of my readers!

Please please please. If you care enough to put my story on alert, or favorites, or anything else leave a review as well. I'm not asked for some huge book report or anything just a small something to let me know what you think of it. Feel free to tell me areas of improvement. I understand that this chapter was slow, but more than likely I will be updating in the next two three days (maybe tomorrow?) so I didn't put my heart and soul into it.

Oh, on another note, I will be looking for pictures of what I think Jace's and Clary's outfits should look like and they will probably be on my profile by the next chapter.

Love you guys! Feel free to PM me 'bout anything. Oh! Check out my other stories too. I have to more on mortal instruments.