OH MY GOD! MAJOR NEWS HERE PEOPLE! Thanks to an avid reader (Irrevocable Love) I am now aware of a FOURTH MORTAL INSTRUMENTS BOOK! :D It's in Simon's point of View and I can't remember the name off hand but I will post it in the next update. Kay people, ready for another chapter? I am! Ok, so by popular vote... well, I'll let you read and find out ;)
Clary squinted as the sun shone in slits through the blinds. She groaned and arched her back, clamping her eyes shut and twisting her neck.
"Good Morning," Someone mumbled from behind her. She attempted to roll over but the comforter was wound too tightly around her legs.
"Morning," she responded anyway, giving up on her mission impossible.
Jace chuckled, "Stuck?"
"Little bit..." She grinned, embarrassed.
"Here... let me help." He started to laugh, helping release her from her linen cage. Her cheeks began to turn red as his laughter increased while discovering how tangled she really was.
"Oh shut up Jace," She grumbled, sitting up in bed. He fell back onto his pillow, still smirking at her.
"Now, how did you manage that? We didn't do anything last night..." He trailed, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Are you suggesting that it may have been someone else?" She looked at him with a sceptical expression.
"You tell me," He replied. "Unless you want your mystery man to live." He hoisted himself up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "Did you think about what I said last night?" He asked, rubbing his eyes and standing.
Clary didn't say anything. She just walked over to the mirror, examining her hair. It was still straightened from the day before but she pulled it back into a pony tail none the less. She fixed her shirt and adjusted her pyjama pants. Decent, she decided, turning toward the bathroom. Jace stepped in front of her, putting a hand on her hip and the other on her neck.
"Nice, but there's something a little off..." He scrutinized her features for a minute before releasing her hair from the elastic. "Much better; you know I love your hair down."
Clary smiled sweetly, taking his bottom lip between both of hers before going to the door. "You coming?"
"Yes..." He walked up behind her, turning the door knob after pulling on a pair of jeans, leaving his upper half bare. "But you didn't answer my question."
"I know," Clary answered, offering nothing further.
"Is there a particular reason for that?" He pressed, keeping the door firmly closed.
"Yeah... I don't have an answer... not yet. I'm still thinking. Give me until tonight." She pleaded.
He stared at her for a minute longer before sighing and opening the door. She smiled at him gratefully before exiting the room, almost running into Luke.
"Oh, I was just coming to see if you two were awake." He eyed Jace suspiciously. "Jocelyn has breakfast ready if you're interested." He ran his hand through his hair.
"Yeah we're coming now." Clary told him cheerfully just as Isabelle emerged from her room, flitting down the hallway at the promise of breakfast.
"Take your time! I need to get down there before Jace eats it all!" She laughed.
"Well hardy har-har. Aren't you the little comedian?" He smirked, taking off down the hall after her.
Clary stayed behind slightly, deciding to walk with Luke.
"So, how're ya kiddo?" Luke asked with his hands in his jeans pockets.
"I'm fine..." Clary began, not completely truthfully. She was utterly thrown by Jace's question, not sure which way to go.
"Well if you ever want to talk, you know I'm here for you." He smiled encouragingly at her. She returned the gesture only half-heartedly.
"Actually Luke... I have a question." She started, deciding that she could trust Luke.
"Ask away," He replied.
"Ok... say that someone you love... and who loves you..."
"Jace," Luke interjected.
"Um... yeah... well, say that he wanted me to do something... that I didn't really-"
"Clary," Luke exclaimed all of a sudden, his face taking on an expression of astonishment and anger. "If Jace is trying to pressure you into having sex then I swear on the Angel I'll-"
"Luke!" Clary interrupted him; he had started to growl... not unlike a dog... "Jace is not pressuring me into sex!" Like he needed to pressure me. She added in her mind. "Will you let me finish?"
Luke visibly calmed down, nodding quickly.
"Ok, so say I didn't really know what to say about what he wanted me to do... say it was a big decision that I didn't want to make right away, but at the same time I wanted to give him an answer as soon as possible because I didn't want him to be upset..." Clary finished in a hurry, afraid that Luke would interrupt again.
He seemed to really think about the question before answering. "Well Clary, the way I look at it is that if Jace really respects you and values you're opinion so much that he asked you in the first place then I would think he'd understand if you need some time to think about what he's asked. But that's just one old wolf's opinion." He shot her a lopsided grin.
"Thanks Luke," Clary laughed, hugged him quickly, and raced off to the kitchen to see if there was any food left after Jace and Alec had had their fill.
Luckily, Jocelyn had become accustomed to serving so many people, specifically teenage boys, extremely quickly. She had made an excessive amount of food for everyone and it didn't take long for Clary to get a plate-full of eggs, toast, bacon, and fried hash browns. She took a seat in between Isabelle and Simon.
Magnus was leaning against the counter, changing the color of his nails every time he blinked. Isabelle and Simon were staring across the table at each other, Alec and Jace were fighting over the orange juice, and Luke had taken a stance next to Jocelyn with his arm over her shoulder.
"So what's the plan for today?" Clary asked around a mouthful of eggs.
"Things have been really quiet since Clary came back," Luke answered. "There's really nothing to do; ergo, no plan for today."
"Who says 'ergo' anymore?" Jace laughed.
"Watch it boy, you're dating my daughter." Luke reminded him, making everyone but Jace laugh. "The point is that you can all basically do what you want today. It doesn't really matter."
Clary groaned inwardly as she realised that this probably meant she would be spending the entire day with Jace. Normally, she would be ecstatic. But this also meant that he would be expecting an answer... and Jace was not the kind of man to be patient.
"Well in that case I'm going out." Isabelle announced proudly.
"With who?" Simon demanded, suddenly looking angry. Clary laughed into her orange juice as the sight. It went everywhere but the look on Simon's face was worth cleaning up a little spill.
Isabelle laughed exuberantly. "Why you of course," She laughed harder at Simon's embarrassed expression. "Well come on, we don't have all day."
"Actually... you do." Alec reminded her. "Don't feel obligated to come back early or anything... or at all for that matter."
"Shut up Alec," Isabelle sneered. "We'll be back around 1."
"This afternoon?" Jocelyn asked disbelievingly.
"No, this morning. I know you function better at night," Isabelle winked at Simon and he smiled back sheepishly.
"Ew," Clary muttered. And in that moment, seeing Simon and Isabelle looking at each other like that... seeing them that happy... she'd made her decision.
.
The rest of the day Clary spent cooking, cleaning, sketching, and anything else that would give her absolutely no alone time with Jace. She was putting off this revelation as long as possible.
Almost as if he heard her thoughts, Jace walked in the room. It was about eight now and she knew that he considered this night, if only to get her answer sooner.
Jace strode over to her and collapsed back on the couch with his legs on the table and his arms spread eagle across the back of the couch, the picture of ease.
His boot was blocking off a corner of Clary's sketchbook. She looked at him pointedly. "Jace," She quirked an eyebrow, nodding her head toward the table.
Jace leaned forward and looked at her drawing, still not removing his boot. "Nice," He agreed, and leaned back.
"Jace," Clary complained, laughing. Jace moved his feet over so Clary could remove her sketchbook.
"Well?" Jace eventually asked. Clary sighed, she knew this was coming.
"Jace..." She trailed. She didn't know how to begin.
"Yes?" He answered suspiciously.
"Ok... look Jace, I know that you're doing this for my safety and I know you're doing what you think is best but..."
"But what Clary?" Jace suddenly demanded. "But you'd rather stay here and get yourself killed? I let you make this decision because I trust you and I want you to have your say. You know as well as I do that I could just pick you up and leave without looking back. I don't want to force you into this and I won't but I want you to think! Think of the risk!" He had shot upright during his rant.
"I am!" Clary exclaimed angrily. "I am, have, will, etc!" She exhaled sharply. "If you would let me finish Jace, maybe you wouldn't be so quick to yell at me!"
Jace stared at her for a minute before leaning back into the couch cushion.
Clary took another breath. "Ok, look. I think that... maybe I..." Taking one more deep breath, she spit it out. "Maybe I agree with you."
Jace stared at her, stunned.
"You're right Jace; we can never leave this life if we stay here. And as long as I can still see my Mom and Luke and Simon and everyone then I don't see a problem with us leaving. It's just that..."
"You're going to miss it here?" Jace guessed.
"Yeah," Clary sighed. "I'm going to miss it."
Jace smiled at her. He was trying to be sympathetic but Clary could tell he was ecstatic. That made one of them.
"And now, the difficult part." Clary sighed in defeat.
"Telling Luke?" Jace guessed with a laugh.
"You laugh while you can," Clary warned. "He might go all wolf on your ass and rip out your vocal cords; or other important body parts..."
And, for the first time since Clary knew him, Jace looked truly afraid.
Ok, I know that technically it's not the first time she's seen him afraid, but the line works there :P Alrighty then. So yes, they are going to leave. But for those of you who did not want them to leave don't fret. It won't be as bad as you think!