... Okay, so I apologize for posting so rarely. Truth is, I could give dozens of excuses about my personal problems, or my lack of inspiration for this story, but I think I'll just let you have at this chapter. Hopefully it'll make up for the time lapse...? We'll see.

Love you all! you're so patient.

There was something with this picture that did not fit. Clary was standing in the middle of the forest behind Nowhere, then sun beaming through the trees, the wind rustling the branches softly... so why did Clary hear creaking?

There is was again. Creak. Creak. Forests didn't creak right? Not like this anyway.

Clary's eyes opened into darkness. A small, relieved breath left her lips as she realized she'd been dreaming and she relaxed.

Clary was suddenly conscious of Simon, sleeping beside her as he always did when he stayed over. And like always, he was nearly pushing her off the bed.

Creak. Creak.

Clary froze in place again. The creaking. It was still there.

Clary sat up abruptly, struggling to see through the darkness, but just managing. The moonlight from beyond the trees came through her window from behind her and cast her shadow across the room. Her small figure, her wild hair.

Creak.

Clary took a shaky breath. Who'd be up at this time of night?

She turned to look at Simon, asleep and sprawled, mouth hanging open and all. She briefly considered clinging to him until the creaking went away, but she knew that wasn't an option.

What if someone had broken into the house?

Clary swallowed, pulling the blankets hesitantly off herself and placing her bare feet onto the cold floor, making her whole body tense at the dramatic temperature change. She stood herself up, neatening her hair out of habit as she slowly approached the door.

She could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she neared the door, and she could hear the creaking right outside of it now. She froze, unable to move now. She was too terrified.

The creaking kept moving slowly passed her bedroom and she briefly considered calling nine-one-one, but then she remembered the reception thing, so she made her way forward, stopping as she laid her hand on the cold door handle.

Maybe she should wake Simon. He was a great deal taller than her and would probably be much better at fighting off a robber.

It also might just be someone from the house, said a reassuring voice at the back of Clary's mind. She wouldn't want to wake Simon if it wasn't necessary... She'd just check, she decided.

Clary- as quietly as humanly possible- turned her door knob and winced as her door creaked open.

Simon didn't stir, so it gave Clary hope she wasn't heard.

She peaked out the opening and saw a single light on, coming out of someone's open bedroom door as a shadow disappeared inside.

Clary gasped. That was Jace's room. So either it was just Jace, or there was someone going into his room.

She closed her bedroom door softly behind her and started quietly down the hallway. The closer she got to Jace's bedroom, the more she felt like it was him. What had she been thinking? A robber? Coming out into the middle of nowhere with nothing else close by to rob the place?

Clary suddenly felt very foolish. The floorboard just outside Jace's room door creaked as her toe touched it and she winced, peeking inside.

Jace was there, sitting on the edge of his bed and taking off his boots. He was fully dressed, she noticed, in boots, a T-shirt, and a jacket, and he looked a bit damp, like he'd been out in a drizzle.

He didn't seem to notice her there.

"... Jace?" She whispered hesitantly, pulling her hair back from her freckled face.

He looked up at her, startled, but then relaxed. "You're up late," he said, voice hushed.

Clary debated on whether or not to tell him he'd woken her. "I could say the same about you."

"Fair enough." He removed his leather jacket, covered with thousands of tiny water droplets and threw it over the back of his desk chair. "I'm not going to bite. You can come in."

Clary tried to straighten, still slightly embarrassed she was terrified only a matter of seconds ago- she should have known better- then she walked into Jace's bedroom slowly, taking a look around. It was the same as it had been when she'd moved in: neat, and with a lack of decor.

"So," Jace says, his lips curling up into a crooked smile, and Clary felt like she knew what he was going to say before he said it. "Do you often make a habit of wandering into mens' bedrooms in the dead of night?"

Clary rolled her eyes automatically, but she was too tired to retort.

Jace let out a soft chuckle and leaned back on his hands. "What are you really doing here?"

"I heard something. Thought I'd check it out," Clary shrugged a shoulder. "Why'd you go outside?"

Jace looked slightly more serious in that moment, then turned to look out the window. Out it, you could just make out the dense green trees and the water dripping from them in the darkness. "I needed some air."

Clary furrowed her brows slightly, wondering with bewilderment if Jace had nightmares, but she wasn't sure she should ask. "I see."

There was a handful of seconds where no words were said before Jace spoke again. "Have you ever run into the rain in the dead of night?"

"Are those song lyrics?"

Jace chuckled. "No. It's a question. Though it'd be good lyrics wouldn't it."

Clary followed his line of vision out the window. "No... I don't think I've ever seen crazy enough to try it."

"We could change that." Jace said quietly, a mischievous smile coming to his lips.

She scoffed. "No thanks." The rain did look tempting though. In this particular moment, Clary wanted to run out into the open and feel the cool, refreshing drops of rain fall on her skin.

"Why not?"

Clary thought for a second. "It wouldn't be practical."

"So?" Jace said. "Practicality is fairly boring isn't it?"

"I suppose." Clary wasn't sure why she'd admitted that. She'd meant to say "no."

"Then let's go." Jace stood up again and started putting on his boots.

Clary looked down at her arms, crossed over her Shere Khan T-shirt and looked at her shorts.

"You'll be fine," said Jace, reaching for her crossed arms and taking her wrist, then pulling her gently towards the open door. He'd forgotten his jacket.

Clary was surprised by his gesture, and she walked down the stairs with him, her bare feet patting gently against the cool marble. "Are you often this spontaneous?" She asked a bit curiously.

"Whenever I can afford to be."

She pulled her hand back from his when they got near the front door so she could retrieve her sneakers. As she pulled them on, she looked at the flowery wallpaper, peeling slightly at the corner and wondered why she was doing this.

"Ready?" Jace asked.

Clary got back to her feet once her sneakers were securely on. "Yeah."

"Then let's go." Jace opened the front door and walked out, not waiting for Clary to follow.

As she stepped outside and shut the door behind her, she looked out into the dark, and the shadow the house cast upon the rest of the yard since the moon was behind the house.

Jace stepped off the porch, walking through a cluster of damp, dead leaves as he headed towards the forest to the left of the house from where Clary was standing. She trotted down the porch steps and followed him, shivering as she cold rain droplets came on contact with her bare skin.

"Where are we going?" Clary called as she jogged over to keep up with Jace's steady stride.

"Not anywhere in particular," Jace said and looked at her as she came up beside him.

"This is your second time going out tonight."

Jace shrugged, smirking. "You'll get another chance to see me shirt cling to my chest. You should be pleased."

Clary rolled her eyes.

"Right on cue."

"Don't you ever get tired of doing that?" Clary asked, vaguely annoyed. She had gotten used to his way of talking, or teasing her. She was barely bothered by it anymore.

"No."

She sighed.

They walked past the treeline into the heavily wooded area, and by now Clary could feel her shirt was clinging to her back and chest from the water. Her loose hair was getting flattened too.

"Why did you need to get air in the first place?" Clary asked.

Jace didn't answer at first, just looked around the forest. His gold hair was beginning to stick to his forehead, and Clary noticed the full droplets getting caught in his eyelashes. She forgot that she'd asked him anything.

"I have a lot on my mind," Jace said finally, as if he's been deciding what to say.

"Bad dreams?" Clary guessed, then wondered if she should have said that. He was probably going to say something annoying or mean now if he didn't want to answer.

"Yeah."

That surprised her. She looked at him.

"Happens occasionally." Jace didn't look at her, but she gazed at him. "I'll have dreams about what happened when I was a kid."

You mean with your parents? Clary stopped herself just before the words escaped her lips.

"Do you still hate it here?" Jace asked her, and she noticed he was changing the subject. She let him.

"Yes," Clary said, looking ahead. "I do."

She felt Jace's eyes on her then. "I think you're lying."

Clary stopped at that, just next to a large oak tree and she turned to face him. He did the same. "Why would I lie about that?" Clary frowned.

Jace's lips twitched ever so slightly. "I think we both know the answer to that."

Clary wasn't sure what he meant. Clary wasn't lying. She did hate it here. There was nothing she liked about this place... right?

"What are you talking about?" She asked, her voice stubborn but there was a hint of vulnerability in it, and she wondered where it had come from.

Jace looked her dead in the eyes, shaking his head slightly. "I don't understand why you want so badly to hate it here, Clary," he said, his tone low.

"I don..." she gave up on saying the words before she even finished them.

Jace looked at her then. Just looked at her. By now, the rain had soaked almost completely through his shirt and was clinging to his muscular chest. Clary could almost see through it.

There was a look in his eyes. A look Clary couldn't quite identify. It was a look, reflecting in his golden eyes, that was fierce. Serious. But also gentle. She'd never noticed that there before.

Jace leaned in closer towards her, and at first she thought he was going to whisper something in her ear, but he didn't turn his head. He just paused when his nose was almost touching her's.

Clary looked up at him, being so much shorter she had to tilt her head back. She swallowed nervously in being so close to him. She could feel heat radiating off his soaking body, making her shiver slightly.

Clary felt each of her hammering heartbeats within her chest, though it felt slow. Time felt like it had slowed, and she felt every single drop of water hitting the top of her head, or running down her face. A few of those droplets, she noticed, were coming off of him.

And that was when it happened. Jace closed his eyes slowly and tilted his head as he came down, and pressed his lips against her's.

In that moment, Clary didn't think about why, or what ulterior motives he had. All Clary could think about was this kiss. How his lips fit in perfectly with her's, and how the feeling in her stomach had spread through her whole body, and how she'd closed her eyes, almost like an instinct. She wanted to feel this.

His lips were soft. And they tasted faintly like spearmint. They pressed against her's softly, but also with a slight firmness that made Clary feel as if she was losing herself, losing all her thoughts, all her other senses.

And sure enough, she had. She came to when she realized she'd fallen back into the tree behind her, and she'd taken Jace down with her. When had she wrapped her arms around his neck?

Jace stayed there, paused, his palms holding himself up on the tree behind her and his eyes searched her face.

Clary didn't want to think. All she wanted, in this moment, was that feeling back. So she kissed him.

Immediately, they fell back into what they'd had before, and she felt Jace's chest press against her's, pushing her back into the tree, but she didn't care. She could feel both their hearts hammering in their chests, and his quick breaths every time they parted for a second.

Her fingers wrapped themselves into Jace's hair, taking it into her fist to pull his lips more firmly against her's. He responded immediately, his one hand finding her waist, the other cupping the back of her neck.

They must have been doing this for quite a while, getting lost in each other with every touch, every breath before Jace pulled away. He kept his face only inches from her's, his lips parted to catch his breath.

Clary stared at him, trying to catch her own breath. She could feel every movement of his chest against her's as they stood there in the rain, just looking into each other's eyes. Clary didn't know what to say, but she didn't feel like anything needed to be said. At this moment, nothing else mattered.

So... what'd you think?