Author's Note: I have decided to take full advantage of Fanfiction, and the freedom of plot it brings.

Nothing

Chapter Three: Simon

Jace's POV

As we stepped out of the elevator I took Clary's hand into mine. "Wait," I said, holding her back from taking another step. "This is the last time I can do this before we see who it is," and I stepped towards her, taking her face into my hands and kissing her deeply; her fingers getting lost in my hair as our tongues danced together. I pulled her against me, hugging her tightly.

As she dropped down from her toes she smiled up at me. "I love you, Clarissa," I told her, running my hand over her head one last time.

"I love you, Jace," she smiled back. I grabbed her hand and held it securely in mine as we made our way towards the door; the bell ringing incessantly. "It's past three in the morning," she said as we reached the door. "Anyone can come in who isn't a Downworlder… Do you think it's… do you think it's…" she couldn't bring herself to say his name.

As I pulled open the door, Clary couldn't bring herself to let go of my hand; squeezing it tightly. Besides, it wasn't an abnormal thing for siblings to hold hands, and after all, we only did just find each other…

At first, there was no one there. I heard Clary gulp beside me; my vision was trained, acute, and sensitive. Yet I saw no one there; smelled nothing. Clarissa pulled herself closer to me, taking my arm with her hand that did not hold mine. I thought it might be a prank, some mundanes trying to break into 'the old rundown building'. "Clarissa," I said, now weary. "Get behind me-"

I was cut off as he came flying through the doorway, screaming. His aim had been set so he would knock Clary and I apart. I simply stepped to the side, but it was too late for Clary. She hadn't been brought up a Shadowhunter, and therefore was still prone to mundane klutziness and movements. I was like a lion, fierce and ready, a trained hunter since birth, making no mistakes in sight, sound, smell, or any other sense. Fully capable to protect both myself and the ones I cared about. Clary, on the other hand, my darling Clarissa, she was more like a fawn: beautiful, impossible not to look at or notice, yet unable to fend for herself, or stand on her own feet. She lay on her side, gasping for air; the wind knocked out of her.

I went to her, placing my hand on the side of her face, and she looked up at me with wide, pain-filled eyes. "Clary, breathe," I told her gently. "Look at me, focus on my voice. You can breathe, Clary. Calm, relax. There… there…" I said as she squeezed her hand around mine, her breathing becoming easy and steady again. My hand was still around her head, protective. I wanted to pull her into my arms, to make sure she hadn't gotten any injuries when knocked to the ground. I wanted to cover her in kisses and hold her. It took all my strength not to; my muscles contracting.

"Dammit!" came his angry, annoyed, and downright pissed-off voice. "Would you just stop?"

"Simon," I said. "How pleasant of you to have dropped by, you must do so more often," I forced a quick smile up at him, and then focused myself back to Clary. "Clary, are you all right?" our fingers were laced together, hidden amongst her body and mine from Simon. I could see in her eyes how desperately she wanted to crawl into my arms and nuzzle herself there. This whole brother-sister thing, if it were a nuisance before, was a complete and utter demon all in itself now. Neither of us gave a damn about it, so why would everybody else react as if we had committed the greatest sin for being in love?

Probably because in the Bible one of the biggest sin's is incest. Whatever.

"Yeah," she said lightly, looking up at me as if she were about to cry. "I'm fine."

"Just, just get away from her!" Simon said, shoving at my shoulder as he crouched down beside Clary at her head. Normally I would have had a good laugh as he tried to get me to move even an inch with his mundane strength, but I gave it to him. This once. I rolled on my ankles a few feet away, swiftly pulling my hand from Clary's before he had a chance to see it. "Are you all right?" he asked her, helping her to sit.

"Did I not just ask her that?" I said. "And did she not just answer?"

"Just… shut – up," his shoulders were tense as he spoke to me, keeping his focus on Clary. "Clary, honey, are you all right? Did I hurt you? I was aiming for him."

"Honey?" she asked in response, looking taken aback. It took all my strength, once again, to not rip him away from her. Then I smiled to myself, thinking of what his reaction would be if I were to mention the fact his so-called girlfriend and me had just made love in my bedroom, after taking a shower together, after she confessed her undying love for me.

"You're my girlfriend, aren't you?" he asked her as he helped her to her feet.

"No," I wanted to answer. "She's mine, always has been, always will be. Now please, leave." I was sounding possessive to my own self, but if I were being honest, I was possessive of her. She was the only good thing that had ever happened to me, and I never wanted to be away from her; from the feeling she gave me; the love I felt when I was around her… from the moment I first saw her at Pandemonium, from the moment our eyes met, I knew I was hers, and she was mine. In my heart, mind and soul, I knew it.

"You've never called me anything more than Clary before," she said, pulling me out of my thoughts. "I just didn't expect it."

"So then I'll cross that one off the list for pet-nicknames for each other," he said as he ran his hand over her forehead, brushing hair from her face. "Really though, Clary, are you all right? Did I hurt you, when I…"

"When you body-slammed me?" she finished for him. He shrugged, looking guilty. And good: as well he should. "No, apart from knocking the wind out of me, I'm fine."

"Good," his entire demeanor had changed with her answer. He took her hands into his, running his thumbs over the tops of hers. "I came here to talk to you."

"To talk to me?" she asked him, looking thoroughly surprised, as she darted her eyes back and forth between him and the now closed door. "You made a hell of an entrance for just wanting to talk."

"I… I know," he slumped his shoulders, dropping his head and closing his eyes for a brief moment. "I'm sorry."

"And before that?" she went on. I sat silently with my back against the wall, my arm resting on my knee. "You just took off. I tried calling you, texting you. And then you just show up, no, no, fly like superman through the front door of the Institute after three in the morning, and say now you want to talk?"

He lit up. "Superman?"

"You've got the hair, the glasses, and that whole flying through the door thing… Stop beaming, it's beside the point."

"Sorry," he was still smiling, practically bouncing.

"Simon!" she shouted, grabbing his attention back. "You're here, so, even as late as it is… Do you want to go into the library to talk, or…?"

"Is your bedroom an option?" he asked. She gave him a look. "What? I wanna cuddle…" he sounded twelve.

"Cuddle?" she asked. "After completely ditching me, ignoring me, avoiding me, body-slamming me… You wanna cuddle?"

"Yeah," he said stupidly.

"Simon," she said, sounding thoroughly annoyed. "Let's go to the library."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense, but first," he said, dropping her hands. "You've got to let me apologize," he took her face between his hands and brought his lips down to hers.

That was the icing on the cake. I shot up from my spot on the floor, knocking Simon flat on his face. "Don't do that," I said sternly as I stood before Clary, her shoulders in my hands.

"Jace," she said nervously, looking up at me, completely torn. "We promised-"

"I don't care," I told her softly, bending down to her height. "He's been your friend your whole life, you can't hide it from him, not this, not him thinking you're still together. And I can't stand to watch him kiss you. Clarissa, love, he'll understand. Make him understand." I told her, and she nodded, running her hands over my shoulders and into my hair.

"Jace," she said, looking between my eyes and lips. "Alec, Isabelle, Max-"

"They're different," I told her. "They really wouldn't understand; Shadowhunters are different, much more stubborn and fixed in their ways than mundanes. But I know you, you can make him, a mundane, understand."

She nodded her head vigorously, looking up at me, pulled at my hair and tugging at the fabric over my shoulder. "Jace," she said, sounding as if she were about to implode if I didn't kiss her. I knew this, because I felt the same way.

Simon was staring up at us, perched up on his elbows. "Clary," he said imploringly while pulling himself up. "Clary, I love you. I love you. I love you, please…"

We both looked over at him, practically clawing at each other. "Simon, I'm sorry…" she told him, placing her eyes back to me. I smiled at her. "I know you love me, but there are plenty of other girls out there…" she was unable to say anymore as she stretched up to her tiptoes, pulling me down and slamming her lips against mine. At the touch of her lips, all of my muscles relaxed, and I found myself leaning into her – having pressed her up against the wall without even realizing it, and holding her up so her feet were dangling in the air; an arm wrapped protectively around her waist to prevent her falling. She was as light as a feather.

Slowly, reluctantly, I set her back down to her feet, pulling my lips away from hers. I kept my eyes shut, my forehead pressed to hers. For a moment, I had completely forgotten of Simon's presence… until the noises started.

I pulled my forehead away from hers, and we both looked over at him. "Well," I said finally. "You've got talking to do. I'll be in my room." I took her hand into mine and kissed it gently, running my thumb over her fingers before letting go. I turned and headed towards the elevator, pulling open the gate and heading up.

They were in the library now, and I sat at the head of my bed with my back against the wall. I knew it was a rash decision to kiss her like that, in front of him, but I trusted Clary, and believed in her. Simon was a rather simple being, and I didn't doubt it wouldn't take her too long to convince him of the pureness of what the two of us shared. They had been though a lot, as she had told me, and there was very little she couldn't convince him.

I knew it was wrong, but I held the listening rune stone in my hand – its mate, in Clary's pocket – I had planted it there earlier, and I listened to the two of them as they sat silently in the library. It had been five and a half minutes, and still, nothing.

"I think I might throw up," Simon finally broke the ice. "I might throw up. I want to throw up, is that normal?"

"What?" she asked him. "Wanting to throw up after seeing two people kiss? No it's not normal," she told him. "Unless you're like a three-year-old, which I don't think you are."

"But, Clary," he complained. "Clary, he's your brother! You brother for God sake! Your family, your blood… It's not right; Clary, and you know it. It is wrong and gross and disgusting and… ugh I think I am going to be sick." He truly sounded like he would be.

"He's not," her voice was soft, hurt. "Simon, he isn't. Blood doesn't mean anything; it's nothing in the grand scheme of things. Listen to me, Simon, please," she begged him. "Love: it isn't a body, it isn't just an attraction, or, no, it is… It's an attraction of soul, Simon. Love is a manifest, not a body. It doesn't matter what race or age or gender you are, a person doesn't pick love, it picks us… And I fell in love with Jace long before finding out he was my brother. It's not the kind of thing I can fight or ignore, Simon, and neither can he."

"Are we seriously having a conversation about you being in love with your brother?" he asked. "Firstly, ew, and secondly, wasn't it me who came over here to talk to you? Not the other way around?"

"Things change," she said. "Simon, would you please just listen to me for one second without your ideals getting in the way?" there was a pause. "I love Jace, Simon. I love him – with all my heart and soul and mind, I love him with all of me, I love him more than I ever thought possible to love someone else. The fact that he is my brother, it doesn't even cross my mind… The kind of love I have for him – that we have – it's unconditional. Sure, he is my brother, and I am his sister. But I love him so much… Simon, I would die without him. He is my sun and stars, the air that I breathe, the warmth from the fire and light at the end of the tunnel… Nothing, no force on earth, in heaven or hell, would ever take that kind of love away from me.

"When I found him, when I realized that I loved him… it was like… it was like waking up. Like, before him I wasn't really living, there was no before before him, and there won't be an after, because I will always love him." I wasn't one to cry, much less shed a tear for anything… But my sister, the woman I loved so dearly, hearing her confess her love for me in such a deep and romantic way to someone other than me, I had tears running down my cheeks. Tears of happiness; tears of joy. I knew she loved me, but to hear how much – to hear her love me as much as I did her… it was heaven on earth. Indescribable happiness flowed through my veins, giving me a kind of high.

"Wow," Simon said after a few silent minutes. "Clary… You're glowing. Clary, I have known you my entire life, well, basically… And I have never seen you so happy. So seriously in love…

"As hard for it is for me to understand all this… I do love you, Clary, but even if I am not the one you love back… I will try to be supportive of you two. I won't tell anyone, I promise, and I will try to do what you asked: I will try to see you two as people, instead of just siblings. My lips are sealed, and I will try my best to be happy for you, which, as much as I can't believe I am about to say this… I don't think will be that hard, seeing how happy you look."

"Simon," she signed: I could just imagine how she looked now – smiling, her hands folded over each other in her lap, her shoulders drawn in together, her fiery hair fluffed out. The image made me smile even more. "You have no idea how much that means to me. That you can be happy for me, and for Jace and-"

"Wow now," he said, probably raising his finger towards her. "Let's calm down a minute here. I said supportive for you and Jace. I said happy for you.

"Now, can we please talk about the reason why I came over here in the first place?"

"Of course, Simon," she said. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Actually… I kind of need both of you – you and Jace – here for this one…"

I was on my feet and heading towards the library.

"I still don't understand how you got here so fast," Simon said. I sat on the couch beside Clary, our fingers entwined, and her leg over mine. "And how you even knew to come in the first place."

"There are a lot of things about my world you don't understand," I said. "Now, what is it you needed me for, to talk, was it?"

"How did you… You know what? I'm not even going to ask," his eye kept going to Clary's and my hand, her leg over mine. I could tell he was putting in great effort to try for us. He folded his hands together, looking away. "Yes, to talk."

"Aright, we're all ears," I said, lifting my arm and setting it over Clary's shoulders. She snuggled further against me. Now that he knew, I was going to do what felt natural, besides, it would help him comes to terms sooner.

"Yeah Simon, what is it?" Clary said.

"It's just… Hard to say."

"Seriously?" she asked him. "After that whole thing. After everything I just told you, you can't find a way to-"

"I think I'm becoming a vampire."

To be continued…