Thirteen

Jace watched as Clary jumped up as if she'd been stung and hurried from the room, he couldn't help wondering morosely if it was because of him. She fascinated him, more so than any other girl he'd ever met, which, if he was honest, wasn't saying much. He rarely even found them interesting. He'd always been able to read people like a book, and pretty girls had always been particularly transparent to him; but Clary was different. For one thing she wasn't just pretty, she was beautiful, which was not a term Jace applied lightly, and for another she was a complete mystery. She was surrounded by a mass of secrets and lies so dense it made her hard to see, every time he managed to coax the truth from her all it seemed to do was illuminate more mysteries, he'd find it frustrating if it weren't so damn enticing. He'd spent nearly every waking moment with her since they met and he still didn't even know if she liked him as a person, let alone in any other capacity.

And then there was the fight. Jace had never frozen before, not once, but when he saw her standing there his mind had gone blank of everything but her, she could've killed him and he doubted he'd have made a move to stop her. And then when she was sitting atop him with an expression not dissimilar to one of a sleepwalker waking up in an unfamiliar and scary place, he'd wanted to kiss her so badly it was like a physical ache. A male sigh sounded from somewhere behind him and Jace nearly jumped out of his skin, he'd forgotten Alec was sitting there.

"For God's sake Jace just go after her, you're not fooling anyone!" His parabatai was glaring at him with a mixture of irritation and amusement. Jace opened his mouth for a denial, closed it again, then sighed resignedly, got up and followed Clary.

She was harder to find then he would've thought, he checked all the most obvious rooms and she wasn't in any of them. Then an idea occurred to him, maybe she'd gone outside, she could've got a phone message to meet someone, it would explain her abrupt departure.

When he reached the front door it was hanging open and Clary was standing on the sidewalk talking to a boy. Jace's first thought was that he was her boyfriend. He warred for a moment with the strangely conflicting emotions of despair and possessive jealousy. Then he noticed another girl standing there, holding hands with the boy. Which made it extremely unlikely that he was dating Clary, though that still didn't completely expunge Jace's feelings, ridiculous as they were. He didn't go outside, he just stood unobtrusively in the doorway watching.

The other two were werewolves, but it clearly wasn't any kind of business interaction, they were chatting and laughing like old friends. Jace couldn't help but marvel at Clary's way of life, there were very few Shadowhunters who could honestly count Downworlders among their friends.

Soon after, the trio said good-bye with hugs all around, the werewolves began walking hand-in-hand down the street and Clary turned back towards the Institute. Jace wasn't fast enough to move and she saw him.

"Jace? What are you doing here?" she stopped in front of him. He shrugged and changed the subject, "Who were they?" he asked nodding towards the two retreating figures.

"They're friends of mine, Maia goes to school with me, she's in most of my classes, and that was her boyfriend Jordan."

"What were they doing here?"

Clary rolled her eyes, "They claimed they were 'in the neighbourhood' and decided to drop by. But Luke is close with their pack and Maia works part time for him, he obviously called in a favour to have me checked up on, they'll probably be 'in the neighbourhood' again tomorrow. You'll notice no one is keeping tabs on Jonathan." She crossed her arms and scowled, the model of a disgruntled teenager.

"Can I umm…" she indicated coming inside.

"Oh, yeah sorry."

She made to step passed him at the same moment Jace moved to get out of her way, and instead they crashed into each other. It would have been so easy, just to step back and out of the way, but how could he not kiss her, when she was standing this close? So instead of doing the smart thing, the safe thing, and moving away, he moved closer, his lip crashing into hers.

She stiffened, and for one heart-stopping moment Jace thought she was going to pull away but then she relaxed and was as much in it as him. Some tiny, rational part of his brain was screaming at him to stop, to think about what he was doing, this girl could ruin him. But it was a small part and so easily disabled by the slide of Clary's tongue across his lips. And then all of him was screaming something else entirely, he should never, ever stop kissing Clary, it was incredible. She was a sensory overload and he was drunk on the softness of her lips, the way she smelt. Her fingers were wound tightly through his hair, and though countless other girls had done it before her it had never felt like this, as though all his nerve endings were firing at once. Everywhere she touched him burned, like her very presence was raising his internal temperature. He bit her lip softly and a shiver reverberated through her body. One of his hands clasped her lower back, holding her tight, the other twisted though her hair, entwining it so much he doubted he could have removed it if he wanted too, and he sure as hell didn't want to.

Eventually though, practicalities forced some level of separation on them, namely, oxygen or lack thereof. Neither moved to step away from each other though, they remained in a tangled embrace, chests heaving, standing so close that Jace could feel Clary's heart racing, he didn't think too much of it though, because he was sure she could also feel his. He looked at her face, her eyes were wide and her lips were slightly swollen from kissing.

She also looked vaguely shell shocked, as though she wasn't entirely sure what had just happened. He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by the tell-tale sounds of the elevator. He sighed irritably and disentangled himself from Clary, moving to close the Institute's doors. By the time he'd slid the last bolt home the elevator had opened to reveal Jonathan. He leant casually against the back wall of the elevator, his expression hardening as he took in their swollen mouths and dishevelled hair, "Hodge wants to talk to us." He addressed Clary, and then his gaze fell threateningly on Jace, "All of us."

Clary glanced apologetically at Jace then led the way between the pews of the cathedral to the elevator and Jonathan. As soon as they stepped inside Jonathan placed himself between them like a physical barrier and pressed the button aggressively. When the doors slid open again at the foyer, he grabbed Clary's arm and dragged her away down the hall, but Jace could still here their conversation.

"Seriously Clary? Your lack of self-control is appalling!"

They walked further down the hall, seemingly forgetting that Jace was behind them. Clary's reply came almost too quiet to hear, "I only have one thing to say to you Jonathan; Isabelle, you filthy hypocrite!"

All in all, perhaps it was better they'd forgotten about Jace, they seemed to be settling in for a major dispute.