AN: Okay, I am so sorry for the delay!! I had a bit of writer's block, I guess. It wasn't that I didn't know what I wanted to do with it, it was more like I didn't feel like writing. I was in a reading kinda mood, and I went through like 10 books in the 2 or 3 weeks that I didn't post. Anyways, I was busy besides reading, but I'll spare you the details of my life :)

Disclaimer: I don't own TMI except for my copies of CoB, CoA, and CoG.

Isabelle was helping Clary stretch as Alec and Jace sparred. Clary had found that her body was capable of amazing and seemingly impossible poses, but she just didn't know the regular routine that they went through daily.

Isabelle bent over backwards, arching her back so she formed a bridge as her hands touched the ground.

"Yeah... There's no way I can do that," Clary said for the 17th time since they had begun stretching.

"Yes there is. I've seen you do it a million times! Come on!"

Clary hesitantly leaned backwards, her hands above her head. She found it surprisingly easy and ended up in the same position that Isabelle was in without the expected excruciating pain. Only feeling the stretch of her stomach and back, she stayed in the position for 20 seconds. She collapsed to the ground while Isabelle stood up from her position gracefully. Isabelle frowned at her.

"You should've just stood up," she said.

"I didn't know I could," Clary explained honestly before realizing that she was somehow completely out of breath. Huh. Stretching had never been taxing on her before, but Shadowhunters had a very in depth stretching routine. "Can we take a break?"

Isabelle shrugged. "I guess." She sat down gracefully next to where Clary was still plopped on her back. Clary tried to catch her breath but was unsuccessful due to her horizontal position. So, she sat up, and then she could watch the boys spar. Jace clearly had the upper hand. He was faster and stronger; Alec landed on his back numerous times. As long as Clary had been watching, Jace had never landed on his back. It was quite impressive. And the dance that they were doing was beautiful. It almost looked choreographed the way the give and take the hit and parry and block meshed together so fluidly. That was until Jace managed to swipe Alec's legs out from under him, landing Alec in a painful looking pin.

"Hey Jace!" Clary called to him. He was still on top of Alec, holding him down, but he looked up.

"Don't you ever get pinned?"

Jace shook his head disdainfully. Clary wanted to crack up at his arrogant expression. "Never! Because, obviously, I am the best, so--" But Clary didn't get to hear him finish because Alec took advantage of Jace's distraction and flipped him onto his back. Clary laughed.

"Hey! That's not fair!"

Alec snickered. "Of course it was fair. We were still fighting. It's not my fault you decided to stop paying attention to your opponent." Jace scrunched his knee up so it was under Alec's chest - a feat that amazed Clary as Alec was practically laying on top of Jace - and pushed, leaving Alec a few feet away, looking dazed. He recovered quickly, but Jace was as quick as lightning and had already pinned him.

"And it's not my fault I'm stronger than you," Jace said mocking Alec's tone. Alec somehow managed to push Jace off of him.

"Whatever. I'm done for today. I'm going to take a shower and go meet Magnus."

Jace smirked. "In that order?" Alec blushed and hit Jace on the shoulder forcefully as he walked out. "Yep. See ya."

Jace walked over to where Isabelle and Clary were sitting.

"You guys done?" he asked.

Isabelle rolled her eyes. "Not quite."

Jace raised an eyebrow. "It really takes that long to stretch?"

"Apparently it does."

Jace rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'll be in the weapons room. Come get me when you're done."

After finishing their extensive stretching routine, Isabelle decided that Clary could use some spar practice.

As they faced each other on the mat, Clary realized that she had no idea what she was supposed to be doing.

"Isabelle?"

"Hmm?"

"Uh, what am I supposed to do?"

Isabelle raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Clary let out a harsh sigh. "Do I just stand here or what? What do you want me to do?"

"You try to knock me to the ground in a pin. Didn't you already spar with Jace?"

"If by spar, you mean him knocking me to the ground repeatedly, then yes."

"Oh. Well, he does that to everyone. Almost no one can pin him. And if they do, then not for long. Like what happened with Alec. You distracted him long enough for Alec to pin him, but he's stronger than all of us. Anyways, when you spar, you try to hit or kick your opponent, or knock their feet out from under them, or tackle them - whatever you can do to make them land on their back. And when they try to do it to you, you try to block them."

That made a lot more sense to Clary. "Okay." Before Clary could process what was happening, Isabelle lunged. She landed flat on her back with Isabelle holding her wrists down.

"Ouch. A 'go' would have been nice."

Isabelle laughed. "Demons don't say go, so why should I?"

"I suppose that's reasonable. But can you get off of me?"

Isabelle laughed and jumped up, facing Clary again. As soon as Clary returned to her feet, Isabelle lunged again. But this time, without thinking, Clary sidestepped her and put her foot in the bend of Isabelle's knees. Before she could fall to the ground, Isabelle whipped around and kicked Clary's shoulder. Clary winced, but punched Isabelle in the stomach. Not allowing her mind to think, Clary attacked Isabelle. The back and forth of blows went on for awhile, until Isabelle knocked her to the ground again. They were both breathing hard.

"That was...interesting," Isabelle commented from her position above Clary.

"How did I do that?" Clary asked incredulously. She had acted without letting her brain process what was going on.

"That's what usually happens. Well, you knock me down sometimes, though, too."

"Weird. Can we try again?"

Jace was waiting impatiently for Clary to join him in the weapons room. Even though she wouldn't know where it was, he was sure Isabelle would show her. Jace inspected several different blades, admiring their advantages. He hefted different types of swords, deciding if he should take one for hunting later. While spinning one in his hand, testing the weight and feel, he heard the door open slowly.

Jace pretended not to hear Clary enter and picked up a small dagger. He held it casually in his hand and flung it at the target on the far wall. Obviously, it hit bullseye. Jace retrieved the dagger and spun around to find Clary staring at him, eyes wide. He suppressed a grin.

"You alright?" he asked her, fighting laughter. She blinked once and seemed to snap out of whatever trance she'd been in previously.

"Yeah. How did you do that?"

Jace sighed, feigning disappointment, and shook his head sadly. "I thought you would've realized by now - I'm just awesome."

Clary raised her eyebrows. "Is that so?" Jace nodded. Clary continued, smiling, "Well, you could've fooled me."

"Says the girl who can't throw a dagger to save her life. Well, in our line of work, I suppose that's the only reason you would need to throw a dagger, unless of course you were killing something." He shrugged. Jace knew that normally Clary was excellent with daggers - they were her weapon of preference - but currently, she wouldn't even know how to hold it.

Clary's eyes narrowed. "I don't believe you. I bet I could throw one."

"Go ahead." Jace gestured for her to proceed and motioned to the rack of daggers and knifes. She studied them and picked up a small silver dagger. Jace stepped out of the way of the target - he didn't trust her aim right now. Clary held the handle in her hand awkwardly, not at all the easy hold she was supposed to have. But Jace didn't correct her. He felt like winning - he'd show her after that throw. Like her hold, she threw awkwardly. The blade jutted into the wall about 4 inches below the target. Clary bit her lip as Jace went to pluck the dagger from the wall.

Smirking, Jace handed the silver dagger back to Clary, and went to stand behind her, his chest almost touching her back. Jace put his hand on hers, so he could reposition it correctly. When her hand was in the right spot, he asked her, "That's much more comfortable, isn't it?" She nodded against his chest.

"Keep your wrist loose and relaxed and your grip firm." He slid his hand down further to her wrist and moved it back and forth to demonstrate his meaning. "Cock your elbow." He slid his hand down her forearm and grasped her elbow, making her forearm parallel to the target. Jace slid his hand onto her bicep. "Keep this immobile and parallel the ground when your forearm and wrist move."

Jace took a small step forward so his chest was touching her back, angled them to face the target, and placed his hand on top of hers. He brought her hand back so it touched her shoulder and then snapped it all the way forward, releasing her hand when her arm was straight. Clary released the dagger when Jace removed his hand, and the dagger hit dead center.

Clary's head jerked back in what Jace guessed was surprise. Her head hit him in the chest, but it didn't hurt. She spun around to face him and - realizing their proximity - stepped back. Jace sighed inaudibly, carefully keeping his face amused and light.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to hit you." Jace smiled at her evident belief that that would hurt him.

"I knew you couldn't keep your hands off me, but I hadn't realized you couldn't keep your head off me either." He smirked at her slight blush. Clary was saved the hassle of answering by Isabelle, who chose that moment to walk into the training room.

"You coming hunting tonight, Jace?"

Without looking up from Clary, he answered, "Where?"

"I don't know. Ask Alec; he's the one that told me about the tip."

"Well, what was the tip?"

"Ask Alec. Are you going or not?"

Jace sighed. Isabelle was completely useless sometimes. Alec probably told her that there was a tip, and she rushed off to tell Jace. Usually, Jace would agree without a second thought, but what was he going to do with Clary? She obviously couldn't come with them, but Jace didn't think she'd really want to stay in an empty Institute like she had when she hadn't been trained. Clary looked away, and Jace realized he'd been staring. He quickly looked up at Isabelle, made sure he had her attention - which wasn't hard because while he'd been staring at Clary, she'd been looking at him - and looked pointedly at Clary.

Isabelle sighed. "She can go hang out with Simon. Don't be such a worrywart."

Clary looked up to Jace, confused at the sudden change in conversation.

"Call Simon."

"And tell him...?"

Jace rolled his eyes. "See if you can go over there later while we hunt."

"Do I have a choice in this? Or are you forcing me to go hang out with him?"

Jace tried to conceal his laugh. "Do you not want to hang out with him?"

Annoyance flashed in Clary's eyes. "I do, but I don't want you to tell me what to do."

Isabelle snickered from her position at the door. "For god's sake, just call him, Clary."

Clary looked at Isabelle as though she'd forgotten she was there. Then she shrugged. "Okay." A look of astonishment crossed Jace's face. But a look from Isabelle told him not to say anything. Clary pulled out her phone and had a short conversation with Simon, and Jace gleaned that Simon was free.

"Okay, let's go then." And with that, Isabelle left to go get changed.

Jace turned to Clary. "Meet us by the door. I'm going to go get ready." He turned to walk to the door, but was stopped when Clary said, "And how do I get there?" Jace smiled.

"I'll show you."

You know the drill. Review. Hmmm... Well, we're at 63 reviews, how about we get to 80? I haven't written the next chapter, though, so it's not like I'm holding it hostage. But that's the goal :) so REVIEW! :D