How do I Love Thee
"Whatcha readin' Gorgeous?" Jace Herondale asked, as he sat down with Clarissa Fairchild. His Clary, the girl he had worked so hard to win.
"Just one of my Manga, what are we doing today?" She set her book down and leaned up to kiss him, even with both of them sitting down she still had to crane her neck like a giraffe to reach him. The drawbacks of being short she would say.
"Actually, beautiful, I have to go and run an errand for Maryse. But I asked Iz what she was up to today and she said not much, so I'm sure she'd love to train with you, if you wanted to do that." He told her, trying to sound nonchalant.
"Oh, okay. I could use a bit of training actually." She smiled.
"You could use a lot of training if you want to get technical." Jace smirked playfully.
"Hey now! I'm not that bad!" She swatted him, feigning offense.
"No, you're right. You're only a decade or so behind the rest of us, so how bad could you be?" He grinned.
"Yeah, well, what I lack in training, I make up for with runes, smart ass!" She said, pouting over his teasing.
"Those will be famous last words, the next time a demon knocks your stele out of your hand!" Jace chided.
"Oh yeah, well, hmph!" She grumped, sticking her tongue out, knowing Jace was right. Although, his encouraging her to train actually had very little to do with the act of training and a whole lot more to do with keeping her pre-occupied while he talked to Magnus, which was to be the real 'errand' on the agenda for the day. He wanted to find out all that Magnus knew about inter-dimensional travel. If he was even going to consider looking for other Jonathans, he needed to find out how to do it.
Jace waited a moment before knocking again. Isabelle had said that Magnus and Alec would be home, so he couldn't understand why they wouldn't be answering. It was the middle of the day, where could they be? Then, just as he had raised his fist to knock again, the door opened, and there stood his Parabatai wearing only a very skimpy towel.
"Jace!?" Alec exclaimed. "I thought you were our Chinese food! We ordered from the Jade Wolf like an hour and a half ago." He said, slightly flushing.
"Wait a second, you ordered from the Jade Wolf and you were answering the door dressed like that? Planning on having a threesome with a werewolf were you? I didn't know you and Magnus had gotten that kinky!" Jace smirked.
"Har, har. No, a werewolf would just think I jumped out of the shower to grab the door, whereas, I know you well enough to know you would assume otherwise." Alec said, ushering Jace into the apartment.
"Yeah, well judging by the towel and the fact you are also covered in glitter, and since I know it's not time for Mardi Gras, I'm going to have to assume you've been playing Spank the Warlock." Jace grinned smugly.
"Jace! Did you come here for any reason other than to torment me?" Alec said pleading for Jace to cease and desist.
"Perhaps, but I actually came here to see Magnus, not you." Jace said, looking around the apartment. "So where is he?"
"He's indisposed, Jace. Couldn't you come back later, please?" Alec begged.
"Hmm, tempting but, nope. I'd rather see what you've got hidden behind door number three!" Jace exclaimed as he pushed the door open to the bedroom which Alec was obviously trying to steer him away from. And there, entirely in the buff, was Magnus. Handcuffed and leg ironed to the bed, lying (thankfully for Jace's sake) face down.
"Oh, so when you said indisposed, what you meant was 'I'm sorry, Magnus is a little tied up right now.'" He said it his best impersonation of a secretarial voice. "Well, why didn't you say so? I'll go read a book in the living room, while you two finish playing 'Magy Wagy's been a bad, bad boy.' And if you're Chinese food comes, I promise not to eat it all and I'll even tip the werewolf, okay? Great! Thanks Alec." Jace said sweetly.
An hour and a half later, while Jace was in the middle of devouring a Mu Shu Pork pancake, Magnus, fully dressed in a dark blue robe with gold chains and a pink streak in his hair, emerged from the bedroom, with a flushed looking Alec hot on his tail.
"This had better be important, Herondale. I'm missing my Days of Our Lives episode to hear what you want, so make it snappy!" Magnus said, and actually snapped his fingers when he said snappy.
"Okay, but Clary can't hear from either of you that I was here, or anything that we talk about. Do I have your word boys?" Jace asked, looking from one to the other. "In fact, it would be best if you don't tell anyone about this meeting, please." Jace sighed.
"Fine, but only because you are Alec's Parabatai and this had better not be anything that will hurt her. I'm rather fond of our little carrot top, you know."
"Well, that's part of what I want to find out is whether my idea would be more helpful or hurtful to Clary, before I decide to go through with it, and that's if it's even possible in the first place, but I'm getting ahead of myself here, because I haven't even told you what my idea is yet." Jace spurted out all in a rush.
"Okay, so you want advice, and then possibly help with some crazy, hair brained scheme of yours, all for the love of a woman. Where have I heard this before?" Magnus sighed, knowingly. "Okay, hit me whitcha best shot. This oughta be entertaining at least." He smirked.
Jace sighed. "Okay, I want to know if it's possible to travel to another dimension, meet an alternate version of someone from this dimension and bring them back to replace that person who died, would that work?" He said, holding his breath.
"What?" Both Magnus and Alec exclaimed. "Okay, first off, while it might be possible, emphases on the word might, there are so many ways something like that could go wrong, I don't even wanna think of all of the potential fallout and what that would even look like in a situation like this…" Magnus began
"Second of all, who the heck are you planning on resurrecting here, and what does it have to do with Clary?" Alec finished, his voice becoming a slightly high pitched squeal.
"Jonathan. So, it is possible?" Jace announced, as if he were merely telling them it had rained on his way over.
"Jonathan!?" They both yelped in unison.
"Why in Raziel's name would you want to bring back our enemy, Jace?" Alec yelled.
"Ahh, I get it." Magnus sighed. "Alec, he doesn't want to bring back Sebastian, the murdering psychopath. He wants to find a version of Jonathan that Valentine never experimented on, who isn't tainted by demon's blood, so that Clary can have a real brother, isn't that right, Jace?" He stated with a cocky grin. Jace nodded meekly in agreement, expecting to be told flat out that there was no way in hell Magnus would ever consider helping with something like this. Instead, what he heard next was music to his ears. "I'll do it." Magnus smirked. To which, Jace's eyes nearly popped out of his head and Alec practically fainted.
"You will?" They both asked, in utter amazement.
"Yep, I will. With a few stipulations met, of course."
