Disclaimer: All characters belong to Cassandra Clare as do any quotes I use from her books.
Author Note: So, I got the inspiration for a lot of this chapter from an actual quote by Jace in City of Bones. I will leave the quote at the end of the chapter so you guys know what I was referring to.
Chapter 2: Kaelie, The Hot Waitress From Takis
It was a Saturday night and Robert, Maryse and Max were all in Idris on business for the clave. Izzy was in the kitchen trying to make her 'famous stir fry', which she swore would taste like real stir fry. Not wanting to hurt her feelings, Jace, Alec and Hodge met in secret, so they could make a plan to avoid the so called 'stir fry'.
Hodge and Jace were sitting at the only table in the weapons room, watching Alec pace back and forth. They had secured the door shut so that Izzy wouldn't hear any of their conversation.
"I can't do it," Alec had his hands in his hair, his body screamed stress, "I can't get food poisoning again. I just can't."
"I agree with Alec," Jace said. He wondered if it was possible for every dish she made to cause someone to get food poisoning.
Hodge nodded. "How about one of you two young men go pick up some real stir fry from Takis?"
"I'll do it." Jace volunteered quickly. He didn't mind walking the few miles over to their favorite restaurant. It gave him time to think and observe the mundanes and all of their strange tendencies. But the real reason Jace wanted to go to Takis was because of a rumor. A rumor that they'd hired a new faerie chick to wait tables. He'd heard that she was tall and beautiful, and that was about as much motivation Jace Wayland needed to want to meet her. But he couldn't let anyone else know that, he had to play this off cool.
"You want company?" Alec asked.
Jace stood from the table and walked toward the door, stopping to look at Alec. "You keep Izzy distracted. I'll get the valuables and bring them back here safely."
He left without getting a response back, heading down the elevator and out onto the busy New York streets. Jace decided not to use any glamours tonight because, frankly, he was just too lazy to bother. Not using a glamour was fun, Jace thought. Mundie women could see him, and they clearly liked what they saw.
He knew he was at his destination when the frame of the brick building was in view, the neon Takis sign flashing bright colors. Usually the place had two men outside guarding the door, but today it was just Clancy.
"Hows the business tonight, Clance-dog?" Jace and Clancy had met nearly two years ago. It had been Jace's first time at Takis. He was 13 and, long story short, he almost got into a fight with Clancy. They worked it out and are bros now.
Clancy is an ifrit, a warlock with no warlock abilities, although he surely looks like one. His skin was a deep red color and his hands were squared off into blueish talons. If Jace was any other normal customer, he would definitely be cautious around him.
"We've had better, but tonight's not too dead," said Clancy. He paused for a second, allowing the two to stand there in silence. "Don't you usually have the two dark haired ones with you? Where are they?"
"My siblings decided to stay in. I'm afraid it's just me tonight," said Jace.
"I like the girl, she's feisty."
"I'm not sure if she's the ifrit type, but I'll put in a good word for ya Clancy."
The two men exchanged nods before Jace finally entered the building. It was as bright as it usually was inside, but definitely not as busy. All of the wooden booths were empty, except for one, which was occupied by a werewolf couple. It looked like they were sharing a bloody steak for dinner. Moving his eyes past the wolves, Jace found the back of waitress. She was wearing a pink and white apron and her blonde hair was up in a messy bun.
She turned around and her eyes immediately landed on Jace. Gosh her eyes, Jace thought. They were completely blue, no white or black pupil anywhere, just blue. He flashed his sexiest smile and slid into the nearest booth, never taking his eyes off her. Considering that there was no one else working in the diner tonight, the blue eyed beauty had to be his waitress.
She checked on the werewolf couple before coming over to Jace. The rumors were definitely true. She was slim and very tall for a female, he thought, and her beauty screamed faerie. They're said to be so gorgeous because they are half angel and half demon. The beauty comes from the angel, obviously, and their cunning tendencies come from their demon half.
"Hi," she said, her cheeks turning a light shade of red. "Have you been to Takis before?" She asked, a notebook in hand.
"Once or twice." Jace wasn't sure how he wanted to make her fall in love with him yet. He had a good range of pick up lines running through his head, which he knew worked because he'd used them previously, but for some reason he felt the urge to keep it old school with this one. "Although, I don't remember seeing you here before, and trust me, I'd remember you."
The girl's cheeks grew to a darker shade of red and her lips turned up in a small smile. "Oh, uh thank you…so what can I get for you then?"
"I'm gonna need three orders of your chicken teriyaki with noodles, and one order of chili cheese fries." Jace folded up the menu and handed it over to the waitress.
"Is this a to-go order?"
"Yes, Miss..uh I don't have your name."
"It's Kaelie. And yours?"
Jace smirked. "The name's Jonothan, but you can call me Jace."
"Okay," she smiled and Jace noticed for the first time just how sharp her teeth were, "Your food will be out soon, Jace."
He never went by Jonothan, but he'd found that telling people to call him Jace after giving his full name gave them a sense of power, like they were special. He watched as Kaelie told the cook his order through the small window opening into the kitchen. After a minute or two, Kaelie turned back around and her eyes landed back on his. Jace stretched his hand out and gestured for her to come back over to his table.
"I noticed you guys were pretty slow tonight, so I figured we could talk while my food was getting cooked?" Kaelie nodded and slid into the seat opposite Jace.
"I suppose that would be okay. What should we talk about?"
"You're new here. How did you end up working at Takis?" I figured she could have just gotten work with the Seelie Queen if she wanted to, so there must be some personal reason for her to come here.
"Well, I just..I've lived my whole life in the faerie realm and I wanted to come adventure out in the mundane world. See what all the talk is about."
Jace leaned closer to the girl. "Adventure? Forgive me if I'm being too forward, but if you let me, I could show you a good adventure."
She giggled, leaning forward with her elbows on the table. "Care to elaborate?"
"What would a guy like me," Jace smirked at her, reaching his hand out to put some of her stray hairs behind her ear, "have to do to take a girl like you out on a date?"
"You want to take me out?"
Jace nodded.
"I sense that you are a pretty confident person, so to take me out, I'll need you to prove that you can handle my kind of adventures."
"Try me," Jace said, thinking she was going to make him embarrass himself in the middle of the restaurant or something like that, but he was wrong. She reached into her pink and white apron and pulled out two round pieces of fruit. Plums? Jace thought.
"One is for you, the other for a friend of your choice. I want you to eat the whole piece of fruit and if you make it through the aftermath, then I'll go on a date with you."
A faerie plum. Of course it wasn't a normal mundane plum. Jace kept a straight face so that Kaelie didn't notice that his nerves were sporadic on the inside. He reached over, taking the two faerie plums from her delicate hands and examined them. "So, after I survive these plums, you'll let me take you out?"
"Yes." A man called for Kaelie in the kitchen. She scooted out of the table and made her way back there. She was gone for a couple minutes, allowing Jace to really think about the situation. Eating anything of faerie origin was a stupid idea, or so that's what Hodge taught him during his faerie lessons, but for some reason Jace didn't care.
The girl finally appeared in Jace's view with his order in her hands. She set it on the table as he stood up from the wooden booth. "I'll pick you up tomorrow at 7?" Jace winked as he gathered the food and headed out the door. He didn't see it, but he knew she was smiling as she watched him go.
The three boys were sitting in the kitchen almost done with their dinner. Izzy had taken her portion of the chicken teriyaki and run off to her room when Jace had shown up earlier that night. She was trying to act mad and hurt, Jace thought, but he knew she was just as happy to have the Takis as the rest of them were. The two faerie plums were safely tucked away on the inside of Jace's leather jacket. He was trying to decide whether he should give one to Alec or to Izzy.
"Well boys, I've got some work to do in the library. Have a good night, and make sure you're ready for training tomorrow." With that, Hodge left Alec and Jace to finish the last of their noodles.
"You don't think Izzy's actually mad at you right?" Alec asked.
"Nah, it's all an act. She would have said something more hurtful than 'traitor' when she saw the Takis in my hand if she was actually mad." Jace thought of all the crazy adventures he'd been on with Izzy and Alec bringing his mind back to the plums. "On a scale of 1 to 5 how much would you say you trust me?"
Alec scrunched his nose up into a million wrinkles. "4.997. Why?"
"I'm hurt." Jace put his hand on his heart and acted like it was breaking, "I figured it'd be at least a 4.999," Jace said. "but that's good enough." He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out the two plums, setting them on the table in front of his brother.
Alec squinted his eyes at the fruit. "Plums?"
"Not just any plums. Faerie plums." The biggest issue Jace had with choosing Alec to be his partner in crime, was the fact that Alec liked to follow the rules. He'd once turned Jace in to Hodge for scaling a 10 story building for kicks. Jace didn't see anything wrong with it, but apparently he had put himself into 'unnecessary danger and was acting stupid'.
"Jace, what in the angel are you doing with two faerie plums?" Alec asked. Jace looked him hard in the eyes and smiled his mischievous smile. Alec, knowing him like the back of his hand, recognized it immediately and widened his eyes. "NO. We are NOT going to eat these. I'm not up for that Jace." Alec crossed his arms, holding his ground. "It's a solid no from me."
Ten minutes later.
The next thing either of them knew, they were both on their last bite of their plums. The whole time they ate, Alec was glaring at Jace, but Jace knew he was secretly enjoying the thrill. After two or three bites into their plums, they could tell something was definitely off about them. They tasted good…too good.
"Okay now what?" Alec asked as they both wiped their faces of the plum juice.
"Now we wai-"
Before Jace could finish, Alec stood straight up from his chair and ran out of the room. Where is he going? Jace thought, and followed him out of the room to the elevator of the institute. When the elevator reached the bottom floor, both boys ran out into the night, ripping their clothes off their bodies as they went.
They were running down the streets of New York under the bright shimmer of the moonlight. Jace didn't really know what was going on, or how he'd gotten naked, but he liked it. He looked over at his brother, who was running next to him, and noticed two prominent antlers sticking out of his head. On instinct, he threw his hands up to his head and to his surprise, there were two antlers sticking out of his forehead as well.
He decided to ask Alec if he knew what was going on, but what said in his head didn't translate out of his mouth. "Brrrruhuummmmmaggger urrghmm sqqueert." Nonsense came out instead and it sounded somewhat wild, kind of like an animal. Alec tried to talk back to him, but the same nonsense came out of his mouth.
The last thing Jace saw before everything turned black was a street sign that read, Madison Avenue. Everything became a blur as the two boys galloped into the night.
The next morning.
The piercing sunlight woke Jace from his slumber. As he opened his eyes, his breathing picked up, and he realized he wasn't in his bedroom. There were trees all around him, and he was laid out on the grass….naked. What the angel? he thought, but then it all came back to him.
His eyes grew wide as the events of his night dawned on him. Damn faerie plums.
Two and a half hours later.
Jace had just finished climbing up the institute and fell into his room through his window. He was thankful to finally have some sort of his dignity back. Getting here naked, and trying to not be seen, had been much harder than he'd first thought it would be. He woke up with none of his gear so he had to do the whole trek home unglamoured. Definitely one of the top 5 embarrassing things he's ever done, Jace thought. He quickly took a shower and made his way to the library, looking for Alec, but he found Izzy instead.
"Hi Jace."
"Have you seen Alec today?"
Izzy looked at Jace. "Oh hi Izzy! Nice to see you too." She said, her tone drenched in sarcasm. "But to answer your question, no. I haven't seen him since-"
"JACE WAYLAND! WHERE ARE YOU?" Alec's voice echoed through the hallways of the institute and Jace's eyes widened yet again. Izzy looked at him questioningly.
"No time to explain. Got to go." Jace ran out of the library and searched the halls until he found Alec. He was in the training room, covered in dirt and butt naked. "Woah there Alec. Put some jammies on." Jace covered his eyes with his hands. "I'm not prepared to go blind this young."
"What the hell did you get me in to last night?"
"It was for the greater good," Jace shrugged.
"Well this 'greater good' better be worth it."
Jace broke out laughing at his brother. "I have a date tonight, so I'd say it was worth it."
Alec raised his eyebrows. "I walked through Times Square naked so that you could date some chick?"
"It was a sacrifice that had to be done," said Jace as he left Alec mad and naked in the training room. He needed to go get ready for his date.
That night.
Jace was dressed in a black v-neck shirt, tight to outline his defined stature, and a pair of jeans. He'd called Takis earlier and had spoken with Kaelie briefly so that he'd know where to pick her up. Now he stood in the middle of the park with a purple rose and a yellow lily in his hands, waiting for his date to appear.
Jace turned around when he felt a tap on his shoulder, and found Kaelie looking at him. She was dressed in a simple green sundress that highlighted the green veins showing through her white skin.
"I wasn't sure if you were a purple rose kind of girl or yellow lily type," he said as he handed the two flowers over to her.
She looked at them for a second, smiling, before they grew so small that she could fit them in the pocket of her dress. Jace wasn't sure how she'd done that, but figured it had to do something with the fey people's connection to nature.
"So I thought we could go to dinner and talk or to a river, catch some fish, and talk?" Faeries were known to like the food of the sea, so Jace knew she'd pick the river option.
"How about I show you my favorite river and you can tell me about your time with my plums?" Kaelie asked.
He chuckled. "After you."
The walk to Kaelie's river was long but worth it. They got to tell each other about themselves and about their childhoods. Well at least, a little bit about their childhoods. Kaelie seemed to grow tense when talking about hers, so Jace didn't push her for the details. Jace left out the part about watching his father get murdered and some other details that he wouldn't want a faerie to know. It is unwise to give faeries a lot of details, because information runs wild through the fey folk.
Jace knew they'd come across the river when Kaelie's eyes lit up and her smile beamed. It was gorgeous, really. They were so deep into the forest, that Jace thought that it was possible he was the first human to ever see this river. The sound of the rushing water filled the air as Kaelie took hold of Jace's hand and drug him closer to the water. It was a striking shade of blue that gave off a magical glow in the dark light of the night.
"So are we gonna catch these fish mundane style or do you have something else in mind?" Jace smirked as he watched her.
"Oh honey," Kaelie's eyes darkened as she backed into the water. "I never do things the normal way."
Fully dressed, the two made their way into the heart of the river. Kaelie's hand was still intwined in Jace's as they laughed at each other. With all of the scenarios Jace had come up with in his heaed for the night, what they were doing now had never come into mind.
He pulled her closer to him so that their bodies were pressed up against each other. The bottom of her green dress moving with the flow of the water. Jace raised his free hand to push her hair out of her eyes. He leaned closer so that his mouth was next to her ear, just barely brushing over her creamy white skin. "Ready to catch some fish?"
She giggled, pushing him back so that she could see his face. As quick and fluid as the movements of a shadowhunter during battle, Kaelie shoved her hand into the river and grabbed a fish, pulling it out of the water to show Jace. "I got mine. Where's yours?" She laughed as Jace's eyes slightly widened.
"H-how did you...ahhh benefits of being a faerie? Nature calls to you." The fish was limp in her hand, but clearly still alive. It was like it didn't care that it could no longer breathe, completely content to die in the faerie's hand. "Here goes nothing," Jace said. Their bodies were still pressed together as Jace tried and failed to catch a fish with his free hand.
"You're attempts to catch fish amuse me. Take this," Kaelie handed Jace her fish and with one simple movement she had another in her hand. "Let us feast."
Kaelie ended up eating hers raw, something the fey people are known to do, but waited to eat until Jace's was fully cooked. Now that they were both full, they sat around the dying fire and giggled as Jace finally told Kaelie about his time on her faerie plums. She was actually surprised that he'd eaten the plums in the first place, and even more surprised that he made it through the night. Apparently they made humans go a little crazy.
Kaelie scooted over so that she was close enough to lay her head on Jace's shoulder. Her touch startled him, but he quickly adjusted and wrapped his arm around her. It was silent between the two for a good while, but it was a comfortable silence.
Jace looked down at her to find her blue eyes already looking up at him. They both smiled at each other, and Jace started to slowly lean down. He moved his body so that he was facing her, and scooted her into his lap. Her legs were on both sides of his body, and her arms were around his neck.
He smirked at her as his left hand moved from her thigh to her lower back and finally up to her neck. Their eyes never left each other as Jace finally closed the gap between them, his lips crushing into hers. The kiss was gentle at first, something new for both of them. Kaelie moved her hands into Jace's hair pulling slightly, surprising him. He smiled against her lips and started to kiss her even harder until the world around them disappeared and it was just the two of them and the sound of rushing water.
Back at the Institute.
Jace and Kaelie had just gotten out of the elevator and were greeted by Church. Jace bent down to scratch the old cat behind the ear and received a happy meow in response.
"Where are Izzy and Alec? Take us to them, Church."
The cat got up ever so slowly, and guided the two young lovebirds to the training room. Church meowed and left after dropping them off. Izzy and Alec were in the middle of fighting each other. By the looks of it Izzy was kicking Alec's butt, but they both stopped when they noticed Jace's presence.
"Alec, Izzy, this is Kaelie. Kaelie, these are my siblings." Jace gestured as he spoke.
"I'm guessing she's the chick that gave you faerie plums?" Alec ran his fingers through his hair.
Izzy crossed her arms over her chest. "Alec told me everything, Jace. What were you thinking?"
Jace just shrugged and Kaelie spoke up. "I didn't think he'd be stupid enough to actually eat them, but in the off chance that he did, I wanted him to have someone there along with him." She paused as all the eyes in the room fell on her. "You can't say it wasn't an adventure though." Kaelie smiled at the three shadowhunters and the room filled with silence.
"This is besides the point, but why are you two soaking wet?" Izzy asked.
Jace looked at Kaelie as she giggled, a huge grin plastered on her face. He grabbed her hand and pulled her back towards the door. "Anyways," Jace said, "I just wanted you guys to meet my new girl. Have fun training."
"But you didn't answe-"
With that Jace left his siblings and took Kaelie up to his bedroom.
Over the next two weeks, Jace and Kaelie became very comfortable with each other, but they never made anything official. Kaelie was the one who actually suggested that the two just stay friends but share the benefits they would get if they were in a relationship. Jace had agreed, and was slightly relieved. He wasn't really looking for anything serious in the first place. A fling was all he wanted, and Kaelie was perfect to have one with. She was unpredictable and as she'd warned him, was very adventurous.
As the months went by, the two would meet up to go on dates or just hang out for a night. Jace had tried to get to know her a little more, but it was like she had a wall up to conceal her past. He didn't mind though, considering he wasn't one to openly talk about his past either. Most of the time they spent together was full of making out and just being free together.
She wasn't Jace's first, if you know what I mean, but she did become special to him. Not in a way where he loved her, but just someone he could let lose with in a way that he couldn't with his siblings. The time that he spent with her, allowed him to forget all of the baggage that filled up his real life. He didn't have to be Jace: the shadowhunter known for killing a ton of demons, he could just be Jace: the sweet guy known to make girls laugh.
Two years had past since Jace and Kaelie started their odd relationship. He hadn't seen her in months, and hadn't thought about her in the past few weeks. Someone else, someone who made his heart beat out of his chest, had stumbled into his life.
She was short, stubborn and absolutely beautiful. Her name was Clary Fray, and she drove him to do things he wouldn't normally do. For example, he'd saved her life from a ravenor demon, given her a rune when he wasn't completely sure if it would kill her or save her and they had just been in the City of Bones without an adult shadowhunter to accompany them. Something about her made him see life differently, but he wasn't quite sure what it was. Before, he had just walked around and done the things he was supposed to do, but now it was like everything he did had meaning. Like he was alive in a whole new light.
As he sat across from the beautiful, fiery redheaded girl, he saw a glimpse of his life before her. That glimpse was of Kaelie. Jace slid out of the booth, leaving Clary to talk with his siblings, and walked over to the waitress. Kaelie turned around and pulled him into an embrace right when she noticed it was him.
He breathed in her familiar smells, still as comforting as before, but he no longer felt the urge to pull her closer. Instead, he pushed her away, removing her hands from his golden curls and set them down softly by her side. He looked deep into her blue eyes, and told her all about this new girl.
Jace thought it was odd that Kaelie was smiling at him. I mean, he was breaking off their fling for good, and she seemed…happy. Shouldn't she be pouring a smoothie over his head right now or slapping him in the face?
"Jace, I will always be there for you. Through anything." She grabbed his hands and rubbed small circles on them with her thumb. "I can tell that this girl is truly special to you just in the way you talk about her. I wish you good luck in love, and hope that we may stay friends."
Jace smiled, happy with how this went and that they could still be friends. "Friends would be perfect. Thank you, Kaelie. This means a lot." Jace removed his hands from hers and turned to walk away, but before he could, Kaelie leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. Something that was so familiar to him, yet felt foreign now.
"Go get your girl," Kaelie said.
Jace walked back over to his booth and slid into the middle of a conversation about downworlders. He looked at Clary and smiled.
So there was my take on Jace and Kaelie's relationship. I know I didn't write that many scenes of them actually together. I wanted to show more of how they happened, a little of their relationship, and how it ended. Hoped you guys liked this chapter! The next chapter will be about Jace watching his father's "death" and the aftermath of that experience.
Quote I built off of: "Don't order the faerie food," said Jace, looking at her over the top of his menu. "It tends to make humans a little crazy. One minute you're munching a faerie plum, the next minute you're running naked down Madison Avenue with antlers on your head. Not," he added hastily, "that this has ever happened to me."
- Jace to Clary, City of Bones, Ch. 11