I pretty much stumbled through the door of the Institute and dragged myself up the stairs to the hallways I shared with Jace and Max. I got to my bedroom door and managed to open it before Jace came out of his.
"Jace, look, I'm tired and covered in soot, I just wanna go to bed." My vision was hazy from exhaustion and I briefly wondered if I'd eaten at all today when I noticed Jace's look of horror.
"By the angel, what happened your face?" Huh?
"Jace, what are you talking ab-" I didn't get to finish my sentence when he grabbed my arm and dragged me into his room. "What are you doing?" He pushed me in front of the mirror and I gasped at the sight of the burn that covered the left side of my face. I glanced quickly at my arm to see the rune was still in full effect. No wonder I couldn't feel it. I turned to see Jace rifling through his draw before pulling out a stele and motioning me to sit. I did as I was told, normally I'd have told him I'd sort it myself but I was way too tired to argue. He carved what I'm guessing was an Iratze on my neck and I suddenly realised how close we were, Jace put his hand on my newly iratzed neck, gently stroking his thumb along my jaw line. I watched as his eyes seemed to darken and was sure that my own were wide and held a glassy quality as my breathing increased, he started to lean closer and it took everything in me to turn my face away from his hand and mouth. We sat in an awkward silence for around thirty seconds before I sighed and stood up from his bed.
"I'm gonna go to bed. We'll... I'll... See you tomorrow." I gulped as I heard him move from the bed and felt his hand reach out and touch my shoulder.
"Jace... please... I'm tired. I can't do this now." He released me without a word and I left, collapsing onto my unmade bed before passing out.

Friday, at last, Sophie was coming over this weekend and I was so ready for some time off after how hectic the demon and downworlder activity had been this past week. Even with not patrolling monday, the three days I'd done were exhausting and Hodge had agreed to give me this weekend off to just relax with Soph. I knew he was only doing this because it was obvious I struggling with the move and I had done a double patrol yesterday, so in his eyes that equalled a few days to just be. Jace was going to be patrolling with Aline in the meantime since he didn't actually WANT time off. Freak. I almost ran down the stairs, my stomach roaring in hunger to get to the kitchen where I could smell bacon. Yum. Bacon. I bolted in to see Isabelle leaning over the stove and I made to go over and steal some when Jace grabbed my arm from his position by the coffee pot. He passed me a cup as he spoke, turns out he was too late to wake me up for training but he'd tried, that was good enough for me.
"First rule here; never eat anything Isabelle cooks." I looked toward the stove again and saw the state of the bacon. Dammit.
"It's not that bad!" Everyone just looked at her and she shrugged in response. "Well, I don't see any of you offering to cook." I hated cooking but the cereal didn't look all that appetizing either.
"I am. Move away, Is." Jace let out a whoop of joy at the idea of a well cooked, proper breakfast and I just laughed as Isabelle sat down with him, Alec, Hodge, Aline, Max and... Simon? Why was he still here? His eyes stayed rooted to the table and I held back a sigh before rooting through the cupboards and fridge. Full english breakfast it is. My arm still tingled from Jace's touch and I shoved it to the back of my mind as much as possible as started the cooking progress.

"I haven't had a proper breakfast since mom left for Idris, two months ago." I laughed at Alec's expression of bliss as he rubbed his stomach and Jace's enthusiastic nod.
"Don't get too used to it boys." They turned and puppy dog eyes me but I just rolled my eyes and went to turn away when I saw Max with the same expression but his was so much cuter, well shit.
"Aww Max, please..." He just stuck his lower lip out and continued to look at me.
"Pwease Clary, Pwetty Pwease." I made a sound of frustration and threw my hands up in the air.
"Fine! But only until your mom gets back. When is she due back?"
"Next month." Fuck.

I was sat in my room, drawing a portrait of Max from a photo Hodge had lent me when the bedroom door burst open and I was attacked and pinned to the bed by two figures. Sophie and Sebastian. I squealed a girlish scream and hugged them, It had only been a week but when you go from living with someone to not seeing them then at all it made you appreciate them so much more. Sophie wasn't supposed t arrive for another two hours and Seb... well I hadn't even known he was coming. He must have seen the question in my eyes because he answered whilst looking down at me from where him and Soph still sat on me.
"Your mom thought it would be good to have the two people you loved most in the world here." I raised an eyebrow, waiting for the truth, sure he was my second best friend but no way would I admit how much he meant to me, I'd never hear the end of it."Okay I may have told your mom I wanted to see Aline."I burst up laughing. In reality Sebastian and Aline didn't speak unless they were just in the same place, no phone calls, random visits or emails, safe to say they werent all that close. My door opened again and I looked up from my pinned down position to see Jace smirking at me from the doorway, it fell almost as soon as it came. Sophie's eyes widened as she took Jace in before looking down at me and mouthing 'is that him?' I nodded slightly before shoving them off and turning back to Jace.
"Glad to see you having fun, I didn't think you knew how." The bitterness in his voice took me by surprise. What the hell?
"Jace this is Sophie McPartland and Sebastian Verlac, guys this is Jace Wayland." Jace nodded but I noticed him sizing Sebastian up and my mind was whirring with possible reasons Jace was in my room and acting so strange.
"Ahh, the Angel boy." Jace smiled a not so nice smile at the nickname. He wasn't jealous, was he? Yeah right, Jace Wayland doesn't get jealous. No player cares enough to get jealous over one girl.
"Clary can I have a word?" His voice was still cold and I was beginning to wonder if there was a something wrong with him.
"Have a sentence, even." He just rolled my eyes and grabbed my wrist before yanking me out of my own room and into his. When he shut it behind us I yanked my wrist from his grasp and folded my arms across my chest.
"What is it, Jace?" My voice was softer than I'd meant it to be. To be honest I'd wanted to sound annoyed but if anything I sounded concerned. Damn him for making me like this, for making me FEEL.
"Sebastian? Really? You turned me down for HIM?" He was pissed but he actually seemed hurt too. Was it possible? Did he actually care about me?
"Sebastian's my friend, Jace." His eyebrows shot up as he shot me a 'oh really?' look.
"Do your male friends usually pin you to the bed and lie on top of you." I threw my hands up into the air.
"Are you kidding me? Sophie was on top of me to, do you think there's something going on between us, aswell? I touched Isabelle's arm earlier in training, do you think I want to sleep with her. Or Alec? Or Aline? How can you make something out of nothing all the time? And what business is it of yours anyways? Why the hell do you care!?" I was well aware that I was ranting by now but I was pissed off. Jace had haunted my dreams and thoughts and by now I was sick of it. I was sick of his arrogance and his dramatics and his - I'd been so caught up in my mental ramblings I hadn't noticed Jace storming towards me, I only checked back into reality when I was pushed up against the wall and Jace was kissing me, hard and hungrily. Without thinking about it, I kissed him back. Matching his passion with my own. His heat, his strength, his... well his everything. He stopped as soon as he'd began. I was stood in shock as he yanked his hair and punched a hole through his wall.
"FUCK!" He looked at me, with my back against the wall and hand over my mouth before running off, almost pulling the handle off his door in his haste. I didn't go after him, I couldn't move, it took five minutes before I could pull myself together enough to leave his room and go to my own.

As soon as Sophie saw my face her own eyes widened and she came over, sitting me down between her and Seb. I just put my head in my hands and grumbled about being an idiot. It got to the stage where I no longer knew if I was referring to myself or Jace.
"Clary, you know I don't want to push you but these past few days you've seemed out of it whenever I called, and you even said that there was a lot going on, the suspense is killing me here, I need to know so I can help." I just looked at Sophie and everything crashed down so I told her, I told her about Jace, about the Clave, the rise in demonic activity, the possibility of vampires breaking the truce. Everything. And throughout it all she was nothing but supportive. Sebastian had remained silent but it was a comforting one, not the judging kind.
"Okay, I am in no way downplaying this but what I think Clary really needs is a break." I was all for that.

Seb and I were lying across my bed, facing the tv with Sophie sat on the floor between us as I braided her hair and Seb munched on popcorn whilst we watched Hindi TV the channel of sex, singing and incomprehensible story lines and getting thoroughly confused in the meantime.
"Is she dying?" Seb asked and though it was a possibility I wasn't sure that was the case.
"I think she's singing?" It was all in hindi so we were sort of making up the words as it played out.
"To a telephone in Hindi? Now that's entertainment. Why is she singing?" His guess was as good as mine, the only person who seemed to have any clue what was going on was Sophie who had actually tried learning the language briefly -for reasons that were beyond me- before giving up and changing to ancient greek with me.
"She's sad because her lover gave her twelve gold coins but then the wizard cut open the bag of salt and now the dancing minions have nowhere to put their big maple fish... thing" Right...
"Uh-huh. Why is she singing?" Sebastian's brows were furrowed in confusion and mine were probably pretty much the same.
"Her lover? I thought that was her chiropractor?" Well he had given her a foot massage and they didn't sleep together after so...
"Because of that thing he did with her feet? No. That was personal." Ugh. I collapsed forward.
"And here we thought just because we didn't have any money or anywhere to go this would be a boring evening." I just snorted into the blanket.
"I know! We could go to a club and sneak in our own teabags and ask for hot water." Sophie turned to smile at me as I lifted my head and laughed.
"Hop off the outlaw train, Soph, before you land us all in jail." I just smiled at them, happy to have them with me and just a relaxed night. It almost felt like being back home. Almost.
"Well I, for one, am giddy and up. It's my day off, no demons or vampires to slay, I'm here with my friends." I turned back to the movie, newly confused. "So how does the water buffalo fit in again?" Before Sophie could answer there was a knock on my door and it opened to show the form of a little boy; Max. He looked so awkward stood there in the doorway of my room as he looked around at the posters and pictures that now filled it, along with an easel and ransacked bookshelf.
"Erm... Clary... Hodge wants you. He's in the library." I smiled toward him and introduced him to the guys. He just waved a little and shuffled back out.
"Want us to come with?" I just shrugged and they got up to follow. They'd already met Hodge when portalling through so that saved time with introductions which Hodge didn't seem interested in at the minute any way, he was speaking as soon as we walked in and I just stood in front of his desk, hands clasped behind me like the soldier I truly was.
"I'm afraid there's more trouble in the Bronx, Clary. There's been an arson each night for the last week, with each fire more devastating than the last." And this is our problem, how?
"Are we part of the fire department now? We can't be expected to do absolutely everything for the mundanes. Can we?" I knew that look, great so much for my day off.
"The evidence -or lack thereof -suggests a non-human source, which you may recall puts it very much under our purview. Call once you have something, yes?" I stuck my tongue out when Hodge looked away and the guys snickered from behind me.
"Fine. But if my clothes smell like smoke for a week because of some lone crazy or faulty wiring, you're paying for the dry cleaning." With that I turned on my heel, Sophie turning to me on the way out.
"Need a hand?" I smiled, just like old times, the three musketeers out fighting demons. That book would have been so much cooler with them fighting demons than humans. Maybe I should send a letter to the author... wonder if he's dead? My mental ramblings really needed to shut up.