So we've got Jace and Clary starting to actually see each other as a couple, and loosen up around each other. You guys all seem to be enjoying the development, so on with the story!
"Are you serious?!" Maia looked extremely excited for a girl who was standing in the middle of a room in just a black thong and a halter neck that was more sheer lace than actual material covering her. She looked overjoyed to see her friend handing in a resignation at the strip club, and talking about a man that she had just started seeing. "This is amazing! I'm so proud of you!" Clary grinned and then took a step back to balance herself as Maia threw her arms around her, pulling her in for a tight hug. "And that's Jordan's friend, right? The cute one with the blonde hair?"
"Gold," Clary responded automatically and Maia raised an eyebrow as she stepped back.
"Gold, aye?" Maia smirked.
"Well, it's kinda..." Clary was glad that they were standing in the dimly lit club because her cheeks reddened slightly. "It's kinda goldy-blonde..." she made a face and Maia let out a laugh. "Anyway, I'm gonna go, before I say anything else that is going to make you look at me like that." Maia was giving her a knowing look and a smirk and Clary rolled her eyes.
"Don't be a stranger, okay?" Maia said. "I'm gonna miss working with you."
"I'll miss working with you," Clary replied before looking around her. "Although I'm not going to miss working here."
"Ain't that the fucking truth," Maia grinned, which quickly turned into a scowl when her name was shouted from behind the bar. "Yeah, Marty, I'm coming!" She growled back, throwing up the finger at him. "Anyway, go! Go and be free."
"I'll see you around, Maia," Clary smiled one last time before turning around and walking out of the club. It had been a short conversation with the manager as she had told him that this was officially her two weeks notice. Isabelle and Simon had been pushing her to hand in her resignation for some time now, and even though Magnus said that he had worked two different jobs while he was putting himself through University, he had told her that was because it was a necessity, and it was different for her. She hadn't been certain about giving up her job at the club, about giving up the security that she had there. Even though Magnus had been kidding the other night about firing her if she didn't do a good job as 2IC, it was still a very real possibility. It was something that could happen, and then she would be left without income, and with the student loan hanging over her head.
But she was ready to take a chance.
Again.
It seemed as though she had been taking quite a few of those ever since Jace and Magnus had come into her life.
But it felt as though they were all good chances.
Clary breathed in deeply as she stepped outside, feeling a whole lot lighter than she had in a while. She had a good job now, she was signed up to go to University so that she could become better qualified for her position—something that she never thought she would do—and she's got a...A guy. Not exactly a boyfriend, but a guy.
"Clare," came a call to her right and suddenly the breath she had sucked in came out hard, feeling her good mood deflate.
"Of course you show up just as everything seems to be going right," Clary retorted as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans and changed direction, walking slowly toward the car where Sebastian was standing.
"Oh, really, Clare?" Sebastian made a face at her, something that was probably meant to look as though he was hurt by her words, but she knew that they really didn't cut as deep as he was making out. They were never more than fuck buddies, without the buddies part really, and he had too much of a thick skin to be bothered by an off handed comment. "Why don't you let me give you a ride home?" He stepped aside an waved a hand at his car.
"No, I'm fine," Clary replied evenly.
"Aw, come on, you just going to walk?" Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "I'm just offering you a lift, it's not a marriage proposal."
"Yeah, not to sure if you're ever going to make one of those," Clary snorted. Sebastian just grinned and shrugged. She sighed as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at the time. It was almost three, and she promised Max that she was going to pick him up from school today and they were going to go out for ice cream. The school was only about a ten minute from their home, but it was still going to take her about twenty minutes to get there. "Fine, give me a ride. But that's all this is."
"Sure thing," the way that Sebastian's grin grew told her that he really thought that there was going to be more than a ride home involved. She ignored it, getting into the passenger side of the car. Sebastian got in and turned the key, pulling out of the awkward sized car park and onto the ride. His car smelt heavily of weed, there was a ripped condom wrapper on the ground by her foot, and there was fast food wrappers strewn over the ground and the backseat. After being in Jace's car, which was tidy and he treated like a human baby, she was definitely more judgmental of other peoples vehicles. "So where have you been? I haven't seen you around in what seems like forever."
"I've got a job in the city," Clary replied idly as she looked out the window, watching the familiar neighborhood pass by. She was trying not to think about sitting her with Sebastian, her mind returned to something that she had been thinking about ever since Jace had spoken with her about it.
Using one of the rooms in his hotel.
His hotel.
She had a friend who had a hotel.
"Clare?" Sebastian gave her an expectant look and she blinked, realizing that he had been speaking to her.
"What?" She asked.
"I said, where's the job?" He repeated, sounding a little annoyed.
"It's just at another club, with a friend," Clary responded, not willing to give him too much information.
"Oh yeah?" Sebastian gave her an interested look but she just raised an eyebrow at him, her lips pursed into a straight line. His eyes narrowed as he realized that she wasn't going to say anything else, and he looked back out the front window as he turned down her street. There was a tension in the air that made Clary shift in her seat. She wasn't used to feeling like that with Sebastian, generally there was quiet if they weren't fucking or getting high, but the silence didn't feel like this.
A big part of that could be because she now wanted more than just the fucking and getting high, and she definitely didn't want it with Sebastian.
"I've missed seeing you around," he seemed to decide on a different tactic.
"No, you haven't," Clary rolled her eyes. "You've missed the sex."
"Same thing, right?" Sebastian smirked as he pulled up outside her and Isabelle's place.
"No, actually, it's not," Clary retorted as she took off her seat belt and looked over at him. "Look, Sebastian, it's over. Me and you had fun, and it's been great, but we were never going to be more than...Than this," she waved a hand between herself and Sebastian. "You don't want anything more, and I do, and I want it with someone else."
"With that pretty boy who was staying with you?" Sebastian sneered, his upper lip curling. Clary's eyes widened slightly in surprise and Sebastian just shrugged as he shifted his grip on the steering wheel. "Yeah, I knew about him."
"It wasn't exactly something I was hiding," Clary replied. "But it's also none of your business." Sebastian shrugged again, glancing over at her. "Anyway, thanks for the ride."
"Yeah, guess I'll see you around," he said.
"Maybe," she didn't bother making any more small talk, or giving him a parting smile. It wasn't as though they were friends, although as she opened the door to get out of the car, she wondered if maybe she should say something else to him. So it wasn't a proper relationship, but it was as close to one as she had ever come, and when she stepped out of the car, it was going to be officially over, even if she had known that it was ending for a long time. "Uh," she scratched the back of her neck uncomfortably. "Good luck?" She honestly had no idea what she was meant to say, and Sebastian gave her an incredulous look.
"Yeah, as if I need luck," he answered with a roll of his eyes. "One cunt is just as good as the next." Clary's attempted smile fell off her face and she got out of the car, slamming the door behind her.
She wasn't missing out on anything by leaving him behind.
Sebastian pulled away from the curb and he accelerated down the road. She watched him go, and then turned to jog up the steps to her house. She checked the time on her phone, noting that she still had a few minutes to spare before she needed to leave to pick up Max from school. The shirt she was wearing smelt like the strip club, cheap perfume and cigarettes and this cloying, sticky smell, and Clary wanted to change out of it before going to pick up the little boy. On her way back out of the house, there was another man waiting for her on the sidewalk.
A man that she actually wanted to see.
"What are you doing here?" Clary asked, her lips starting to tip upwards.
"Scenery?" Jace held out his arms wide as he looked up and down the street. "Drive to clear my head?"
"Oh?" Clary smirked. "Well, then, you won't be disappointed if I don't invite you to come and get ice cream with me and Max." Jace stuck out his lower lip and batted his eyelashes at her.
"Now that's just mean to hold out on an opportunity to see my little man and ice cream," Jace pouted. He kept on talking, undoubtedly going on about how unfair it was that she was threatening to withhold ice cream, but she was still stuck on the 'my little man' comment. It made her stomach do weird flip flops. Max was one of the most important people to her in the world, and the way that Jace had so casually included him in a way that made him sound important to him as well did funny things to her heart.
She practically flew down the last few steps and pressed her smile against his lips. Jace was mid-sentence, but he stopped talking to return her kiss straight away. He tasted like he had been drinking coffee, and Clary knew she must taste of cigarettes, but she wanted more than the superficial taste on the surface. She pushed her tongue into his mouth, curling it around his and feeling his hands rest at her lower back. When they pulled apart, Jace took a moment before opening his eyes.
"What was that about?" He mumbled with a raise of his eyebrows.
"I can't just kiss you? I thought that was one of the plus sides to going steady with someone," Clary tilted her head to the side, her arms still around his neck.
"Oh, so we're going steady now?" Jace teased, although there was a hopeful note to his voice.
"Well," Clary bit down on her lower lip as she shrugged and tried to play off her words. "Yeah, I guess. Whatever." She began to skip toward his car, but he reached out and wrapped his fingers around her wrist.
"I want to," he stated, sounding a little uncertain of the words. Clary blinked at him. "I want to...Go steady with you." Clary actually looked as though she was blushing slightly at his words and tried to play it off with a roll of her eyes and a jerky nod of her head. She hoped that Jace knew that she agreed with him, but it really wasn't something that she wanted to have a conversation about, at least not now.
"Yeah, well, this conversation seems a little high school for me," she stated as she pulled her hand away from him. "So you having ice cream with us?"
"Sounds good," Jace gave her an easy smile that made his golden eyes twinkle, and it seemed as though he knew what she was trying to say without actually using words. "You working tonight? I can give you a ride in."
"Nah, not until tomorrow," Clary replied as she got into the passenger side of the car and waited for him to get in. He was driving the Honda, which meant that he had driven here with the intention of driving out to see her, he hadn't just been driving around and then visiting her was an afterthought. Usually he drove his Porsche, sometimes his Ferrari, and while Clary liked the luxury of both cars, she felt more comfortable in his Honda, and so whenever he came out to see her, or picked her up from work, he made an effort to bring that car. "And guess what?"
"What?" Jace gave her a side look as he turned the engine of the car on and pulled a u-turn, heading in the direction of Max's school.
"I handed in my resignation today," Clary grinned, feeling that lightness inside again, the same feeling she had when she had walked out of the club that had been shot down when she had seen Sebastian. "Was feeling pretty damn good about it as well before I came outside and Sebastian was standing there." She heard Jace suck in a sharp breath at the mention of the other man and she gave him a curious look before continuing. "So I've got two weeks left, and I'm only doing one shift a week now, and then I'm free. It's going to be...Weird," she crinkled up her nose.
"It'll give you some more time off, at least until you start your classes," Jace commented. One of the things that Clary appreciated when he had been encouraging her to resign from the job at the strip club, was that he never made her feel as though she was doing something to be ashamed of, and needed to leave it behind. His reasons were that she was working herself ragged at both jobs, and that was exactly what Simon and Isabelle were saying.
"Yeah, I guess," Clary shrugged.
"And..." Jace trailed off as they reached the street that the school was on and pulled up behind the line of cars where parents were waiting. "And Sebastian took you to hand in the resignation?"
"No, he was just there when I came out," Clary answered as she took off her seat belt. She made a face. "Isn't it fucking weird? That whatever it was me and Sebastian had was the longest relationships I've ever had."
"Yeah, well, the longest I had ever had was with Kaelie, so what does that say about me?" Jace retorted.
"That we're both fuck ups?" Clary laughed. "Anyway, I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm moving on from that—from him." Jace's eyebrow twitched and she grinned. "Why, were you worried?"
"About what?" Jace made a face at her, but she saw the way his lips tightened in the corners and how he wasn't meeting her eyes. It wasn't ever an expression she had seen toward her, but she had seen it a hundred times when boyfriends had come into the strip club and seen their girlfriends sashaying around, and especially when Simon saw Isabelle smile at pretty much any male.
He was jealous.
It was such a pathetic thing to make her heart beat faster in her chest, but before she climbed out of the car, she stretched across the centre console of the car to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Don't worry, you're currently in the top five or maybe six males in my life that I like, probably somewhere under Magnus and Dave Franco," she told him with a wiggle of her nose, and Jace's lips relaxed into a smile. "Now, I gotta go get Max, and then we're going for ice cream, yeah?" She got out of the car and headed toward the school where the kid were all beginning to file out of the gates toward the waiting school bus and the mothers. Jace watched her go, his eyes resting on her ass for a split second before they shifted to a much more PG scene of Max skipping toward her, dragging his backpack behind him.
He really never thought the day would come when his smile grew bigger when he was watching a girl give a little boy a hug rather than from just staring at her ass.
Clary was doing all sorts of weird things to him.
Of course, when a gust of wind whipped by and made her skirt blow up, giving him a quick glimpse of her upper thighs and a hint of the light blue underwear that she was wearing, he enjoyed that a whole lot as well.
"What are you smiling so big about?" Magnus whispered in Clary's ear, appearing behind her. The red head started in surprise, and then turned around to face him, resting her elbows on the bar behind her.
"I'm in a good mood," she stated. "You got a problem with that?"
"Absolutely no problem at all, doll face," Magnus smirked at her as he looked around the club, watching the girls dancing on stage and the rest of the clientele. "I'm just wondering what's behind it," he looked back at her and wiggled his shaped eyebrows. Clary rolled her eyes at him and then turned toward the door. It was just after one in the morning, the doors officially closed at eleven, given how full the club already was, but sometimes one of their VIP's showed up and she needed to go out to greet them.
"Maybe I'm just in a really good mood," Clary repeated, sticking her tongue out at him. "Because I resigned from my old job, and I'm working somewhere I don't have to put up with creepy bastards sticking their hands all up in places that they shouldn't be, and I've just enrolled for a course, which I never thought I would be a chance to do?" She almost ran out of breath by the time she finished her spiel and Magnus just waited with a raised eyebrow and then grinned.
"And those are all things to be very excited about," Magnus replied easily. "But that particular smile has something to do with a male, and I'm thinking it probably has to do with a male named Jace." Clary breathed out through her nose and rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, alright, okay," she shrugged and grinned, not looking at all abashed by the admission. "It's Jace." Magnus' eyebrows shot up in surprise at that and she gave him a look. "What? You expect me not to say it?"
"Well, you have seemed pretty hesitant in the past to admitting the way you feel about him," Magnus commented.
"Hey, I'm not getting into all the feelings shit with you," Clary crinkled up her nose. "I'm way too fucking sober for that, and last time I checked, you weren't Isabelle or Simon, so you don't get let into that part of my head." Magnus pouted and Clary laughed. "We're not a thing or anything, we're just...Seeing each other. Or something..." she trailed off and narrowed her eyes as she thought, staring down down to where Lydia and another one of the girls were twisting around each other on stage. They were wearing these netted body suits that had glittered splattered over their nipples and the apex of the legs, making sure to hide only their most secret places. It wasn't so much dancing that they were doing, more just some insanely acrobatic moves, their legs bending so their feet were behind their heads and balancing themselves with just one arm extended.
"Something?" Magnus prompted. Clary looked back at Magnus, her fake eyelashes fluttering against her glittery dusted cheeks.
"Yeah, something," she nodded. "And that's all you're getting from me."
"Right, well, if we're done with your life, I guess we can always move onto mine," Magnus grinned widely.
"Ooh yes, tell me more about my best friends brother who seems to glare even when I know you must be screwing him well," Clary gave Magnus a wicked smirk. "Come on, he must be a uninhibited in bed, right? Those uptight ones always are." Magnus grinned, picking up the tumbler of glass with scotch in it, swirling the liquid around before throwing it back.
"Oh, the things I could tell you about that man," Magnus breathed, his gaze drifting off to the side as he got lost in thought. Clary giggled and nudged him.
"Tell me, tell me," she urged.
"I don't think so," Magnus fired back with a cheeky grin. "You'll never be able to meet him in the eye again." It was Clary's turn to pout, but she had something else on her mind.
"Have you guys..." she wasn't too sure how to phrase it, licking her lips and tipping her head to the side. Her long hair was straightened, falling over her shoulder, which was exposed in the gold strapless dress that she was wearing. "Are you guys going to come out? Like, as a couple? I mean, I know you've got no issue with it, but Alec's a bit different."
"He's spoken with his parents, that was a big thing," Magnus replied, his voice soft. "And that was the first step. Everything else—we'll take it as it comes," he looked over at Clary, a small, genuine smile on his face. "I love Alec, and I know he loves me. Him telling his parents was proof enough of that, and I can wait a little bit longer for him to figure the rest out." Clary wasn't too sure what to reply to that, because the whole tone of the conversation had become a whole lot more serious, and it wasn't really the time or the place to continue that. The music was suddenly coming to the end of the song, and the girls on stage were blowing dainty kisses out to their adoring audience before skipping backstage. It was Magnus' turn to go up on stage and address the audience. He straightened out his jacket and his tie, and then he leaned in to speak in Clary's ear. "You and Jace keep up whatever it is you've got going on, because that smile looks damn pretty on your face."
OMG! How many times have you guys watched Jenna Dewan-Tatum's dance to her hubby's Magic Mike song? She's so fucking hot! Her and Channing are my fave celeb couple *sigh*. Out of those Lip Sync battle performances, I don't know if it's the Tatum's who are my favourites, or the Hough siblings, coz Julianne and Derek are just baaaaabes.
So for another story that I'm working on, can you guys give me job/career ideas of what you imagine our TMI characters having in an AU world? Clary, Jace, Izzy, Simon, Alec, Magnus, Kaelie, Maia, Raphael...Etc etc. Let me know in the reviews or in a PM.
Also, can we just take a moment to appreciate how beautiful Chris Evans and Jeremy Renner looked at the Oscars? Holy shit. And how Taraji P Henson absolutely slayed on the red carpet? She's so fucking gorgeous.
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And if you're logged in and want a preview, let me know xx