Clary POV

Clary felt like she was going to be sick.

How could she have never known?

While looking for information about Sebastian, Clary had stumbled across a birth certificate for a still born. Clary wouldn't have cared but the date on the birth certificate was on her birthday. Clary had had a twin and never knew. After that Clary forgot about Sebastian and instead focused on her un-born twin brother.

As it turned out her twin was alive. At the hospital, on the day of their birth, Clary's twin was accidently swapped with another child that had poor health and died after 3 hours. For 3 years Clary's parents believed, and her mother still believes as far as Clary knows, that her twin brother had died. But 3 years after the incident Valentine received a note explaining that a 3-year-old boy had been found at an orphanage and his DNA tests had shown that his parents were Jocelyn and Valentine Morgenstern. Valentine had written to them and had the boy sent to live with a distant cousin, stating that his wife would not be able to handle such news. Valentine had kept a digital copy of these letters and Clary had read them several times before reading the rest. After the boy had been sent to live with Valentine's cousin, he had kept in contact with the boy and his 'aunt'.

Clary could remember he father leaving for a business trip every year the week before her birthday. She now knew where he went for his business trips. The boy had been named Sebastian by the orphanage and had his last name changed to Verlac when he went to live with his aunt.

Sebastian Verlac was her twin brother and he knew it. He was basically a carbon copy of Valentine with incestuous feelings. Clary couldn't think, she knew that Sebastian knew by the hesitance he had when giving her his last name and the strange look in his eyes when he looked at her. He knew and he'd been sent here to something to her, she could tell.

After sitting in a frozen position for nearly an hour, Clary decided to go for a run. It was 6 o'clock in the morning and there was no way she would be getting back to sleep anytime soon.

Clary wrote a note saying that she was going for a jog up to Luke's bookstore then left. Clary felt like running forever and didn't notice when a certain golden boy came round the corner with his head down. Jace didn't seem to notice her either but they both noticed each other when they collided head-on.

Clary could think of few things worse than being confronted by Jace until she noticed they he seemed pretty shaken to.

Jace POV

The night wasn't going so well since Alec had seen Jace cry. Jace hated anyone seeing him cry, even little Max who usually comforted him. Jace had been at the Lightwood's house for about a month when Max started waking him up after his nightmares and comforting him. Max had been 5 but he was the only one Jace trusted with his nightmares. Then, one night, Max had brought Alec and Izzy along to comfort Jace. After that night they all ended up knowing his secret but Max was always the one who calmed him down. When Max was 7 he moved into Jace's room and no longer brought Alec and Izzy along when Jace had a nightmare, although they had started becoming less frequent. When Max first met Jace he wouldn't stop asking about why Jace had 2 last names and that had become their little calming saying.

Jace had loved hearing Alec say Max's little catchphrase and fell asleep soon after but Jace woke again from an even worse nightmare.

About Max.

Jace had been thoroughly shaken up at that and ran from the house. He always slept in track pants and a t-shirt, so at least it looked like he had planned to run. After about 20 minutes of walking around aimlessly Jace sent Alec a message saying that he was out and then continued on his way. Another 10 minutes passed and Jace got a text from Izzy.

Izzy: I just found the giant welt you left on Meliorn. Not cool Jace!

Jace: Did you sleep with Meliorn!?

Izzy: NO! Why would you ask that?

Jace: I remember kicking him right near his manhood Iz, so don't even try to deny it.

Izzy: …

Izzy: If you tell Alec I will kill you

Jace: Are you guys an item at least?

Izzy: Yes

Jace: Ok I promise to not tell Alec

That set Jace's already shaken mind into full blown panic mode. Meliorn was in league with Seelie, the queen of campus, and siblings with Kaelie, his last hook-up. Kaelie and Seelie both had huge crushes on him and had already gone through a lot of weird crap to try and get with him. He's hooked up with both before but never gone past second base with them and they seemed to want nothing more than to get in his pants. If Meliorn had suddenly asked Izzy to date him Jace was pretty sure that Seelie and Kaelie had something to do with it. Jace would never tell Izzy because she'd most likely tell him to piss off and to stop being self-centred. Instead he told her to be careful and continued walking. It was just after 6am, meaning that Jace had been walking for over an hour now.

Jace wasn't paying attention to anything as he walked. He rounded a corner and ended up running into the one and only, Clary. Jace could imagine only a few things worse than letting his crush see him so shaken but he quickly lost that train of thought when he saw that she looked equally as bad as he did. He waited for Clary to say something until eventually they both ended up asking the same question.

"What's wrong?" they both say in a movie worthy unison.

"That was weird," Clary laughed a bit nervously. Jace figured that she must feel awkward to and pulled her into the coffee shop next to where they were standing.

"Are you ok?" Jace asked after they were seated.

Clary looked uncomfortable," I… um… what are you doing out here?"

"I can't handle my house at the moment," he said, shocking both himself and Clary with his honesty.

"Wow, and here I was thinking I was stuck with asshole Jace," Clary said trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work.

Jace started to feel uncomfortable and tried to leave the conversation before he admitted to what was bothering him. For some reason he didn't want to be his usual cocky, lying self towards Clary. Clary noticed his internal battle and ushered him into a booth before he could high tail it out of the café.

Clary POV

It was strange to say the least but Clary didn't want Jace to leave. She was actually extremely grateful that he had run into her and not some creep, or Sebastian. So when Jace started having an internal war, Clary dragged him into a booth in the far corner of the café. Jace had shocked her with his honesty before and Clary was seriously hoping that he would stay that open.

Clary had always been the motherly friend back home. She was the one that looked after everyone when they were sick or had scraped their knee and she was the one that stopped Simon going into a severe depression after his dad passed away, his sister Rebecca tried to help but it was Clary that really helped him. Since Clary was the caring one she desperately wanted to know what was bugging Jace.

After 3 minutes of awkward silence it was Jace who broke the tension.

"So… What brings you here so early?" He asked awkwardly.

"Discovered a family secret. You?" Clary replied.

"Remembered a family secret."

Jace answered in a sarcastic tone so Clary wasn't certain if he was serious until she saw the genuine hurt in his eyes as he got lost in a memory. Eventually Clary snapped him from his reverie and changed the subject to school. They spent the next half-hour talking about what they both enjoyed about school, Clary got some subtle information about Sebastian and Jace warned Clary about Meliorn and his worries for Izzy.

They had to end their conversation early as Clary remembered that she had to get to Luke's before her freaked out but she felt that she had just witnessed to beginning of something lovely. She was happy despite everything that had happened this morning and so was Jace. She also felt like she'd accomplished something more than friendship, she felt like she could trust him.

Yes, I have finally added some Clace! granted it isn't romantic but it still counts.

What do you think of the connection between Clary and Sebastian?

What do you think of Max being Jace's little guardian angel?

I'll introduce Max in later chapters but until then,

please read, review and leave me your suggestions

-E

PS: Still wining the competition! ;P