Author's note : I'm so sorry , I know it's been ages but I have a huge break now and I'm going to try to update more. I decided to speed up the pacing of the story to make it more entertaining not only to read but to write. Also, I know I haven't really been going along with a timeline but I feel like writing Christmassy chapters and going off the fact that it has been a few months since the beginning of the story in September when the dance year started, I have decided to make it the 1st of December in this chapter. Sorry if Jace seems a bit OOC .
*I do not own the Shadowhunter Chronicles, Cassandra Clare does
Jace's P.O.V
It has been another amazing few weeks with Clary and even though it is sudden, and I haven't told her yet, I think I'm in love. I've never felt like this before and I can only hope she feels the same way. I had spent so long acting like a player in my younger years and then once I settled down, I was too focused on Lilly to worry about finding love. The thought of loving a girl that wasn't my daughter scared me, but I was ready to dive right in with Clary. I just want to wait until I'm sure she feels the same.
I snap out of my thoughts as Lilly squeals with delight when she sees Clary waving as we pull up at the dance studio. It's only midday and classes don't start until 4, so we're the only ones here. I had promised Clary I would help her set up some ballet barres, so we came in early. As Lilly ran out the car to hug Clary, I noticed she was wearing another one of her ballet novelty t-shirts, this one said, 'Passé me the coffee' and even though I had no clue what half of her t-shirts meant, I knew she found them immensely funny and I loved them because of that. She also had Santa earrings on, in the spirt of the start of the Christmas season. Watching her smile at Lilly made my heart skip a beat.
I greeted Clary and walked into the studio following her with Lily in her arms. She led me into the studio needing the barres and together we put them up. It would have only taken us about an hour but Lilly had been running around distracting us so the task ended up taking us to hours.
"Daddy, I'm hungwy" Lily pleaded.
"It is way past lunch," Clary started, "Lilly and I can go get lunch and bring it back to you, whilst you finish off." Lilly was very enthusiastic about the idea and I agreed.
After they left, I finished quickly and walked over to the piano, in the corner of the room, that I had been eyeing up since I got here. I'd learnt how to play the piano at a young age and I've always loved it, but I haven't been able to play much since Lilly was born. I sat down at the piano and started playing Christmas carols from the sheet music that was sitting on the piano, I got completely lost in the music.
"That was amazing, why didn't you tell me you could play?" I heard Clary's angelic voice ask. I snapped out of my reverie and smiled over at her and Lilly, they had came back with lunch.
"I learnt to play as a kid and it never left me." I replied.
"Well, I've been meaning to get a pianist in, to play some Christmas music so I could do an open class with some of my classes for fun. Would you mind playing for me tonight or another night?"
"I can play for you tonight, if you want. But Lilly might have to stay and watch because everyone else is either teaching or coaching tonight." To that, the both of them enthusiastically agreed, Lilly was extremely excited about watching the big girls dance. Over lunch, Clary explained what I'd need to do, and we then spent the rest of the time talking and laughing.
A few hours later, a class of about 13-year olds came in and Clary introduced me to the girls and explained what would be happening. This was met with lots of giggling. Classes continued on for a few hours, with Lilly running back and forth between studios watching different classes, until we discovered her asleep on the couch in the backroom, and Clary teaching exercises, then asking me to play whilst she could out a variety of things that made no sense to me. Such as:
"More fondu!"
"Keep those hips square girls, imagine you have headlight hips."
"Use your demi!"
"And a 5,6,7,8! Coupe, chasse, pas de bourre, glissade , grand jete. I want to see lots of power in your legs, girls"
By the end of the classes, my hands were aching, and I was more than ready to go home, Clary was looking the same. Clary and I decided to go back to my place and get dinner on the way. We took my car, deciding to leave Clary's at the studio and went back to my place. Halfway through dinner, Clary's phone began to ring. She looked at the number and looked at me apologetically before I encouraged her to answer and she left the room. 5 minutes later, she came back in with a worried look on her face.
"That was the director of the New York City Ballet," Clary started, "Most of the senior company members are on tour, but they're still running Nutcracker here in New York. At rehearsals today, the lead, who was dancing Sugarplum Fairy, tore her Achilles tendon and she won't be able to dance. They have no one else who can perform the role because she was the understudy for the dancer on tour and the role is so technically difficult and demanding. I've danced the part a few times before, so the director wanted to know if I was willing to dance the part for the short season and then possibly come back on as Odette and Odile for the production of Swan Lake after, because they won't be back from tour and the same girl was performing as Odette and Odile. Apparently, I'm the only person who knows both roles well enough and has the capability to perform them well, but I told him I would think about it. "
"Do you want to do it?" I asked her, seeing she was genuinely struggling to decide.
"I don't know if I can survive in that environment again." She reluctantly replied. "I've mentioned before that I became obsessed with my weight when I was there, but I never told you to what extent. As I started moving my way up in the country, some girls got jealous and some of them began pressuring me about my weight. I became anorexic and lost most of my energy, I was still dancing but I was pushing myself to keep going. One day, I was rehearsing, and I fainted. My closest friend in the company intervened and told me I should take some time of for my health. I left the company and began a rehabilitation program before I started teaching."
My heart broke with her reply and all I could do was bundle her up in my arms. We stayed there holding each other, until she broke the silence.
"I though I was ok stopping dance but now that there's an opportunity for me to dance again, I can't help but miss it." She whispered.
"I know how much you love dance," I started, "and if this is something you want to do then I will support you through it. But I also understand if you don't"
"I think I want to do it but I don't want to fall back into that mindframe."
It was breaking my heart to see her like this and in that moment, I decided I was going to tell her. "I will support you through every step of the way and I promise I will not let you end up like that again. I love you, Clary." I hear her gasp and then suddenly she launched her arms around my neck and kissed me passionately before pulling away and whispering "I love you too."
