Title: Leading and Leaving
Rating: PG
Word Count: 221
Pairing: Clary/Mattes
Round/Fight: 3/A
Summary: "She can lead you to love, she can take you or leave you." Different events have different effects, and Mattes can make neither head nor tail of some of them. Always a Woman Pt 4.
The life of a Dog leads to events that people are not prone to forgetting, and Mattes is no exception. He is particularly fond of ones like joining up with the Dogs, and several adventures with his training pair.
There are more events of a fouler type, he knows, ones that involve secrets and lies for everyone involved, and he smashes through these with naught but his baton and Clary at his back; he doesn't normally care to remember these.
Still others, he isn't so sure about, for they cross too many lines in the sand for him to remember where he stands.
The night of the fight at the Barrel's Bottom is one of these tenuous events, and sometimes when he's happy Mattes doesn't mind remembering. Sometimes he does, but even the bottom of his mug of ale can't tell him the secrets to forgetting.
He wouldn't have met Sabine that night, not without Clary. Without her at his back, he'd probably have made a damn fool of himself too.
But even as they left together, Cooper in tow, Mattes knew without looking that Clary would leave without a backwards glance in the morning—heading towards a bed without him, not away from one with him—so he didn't protest when Sabine took him with her a few nights later.