Hey, guys :) I just want to apologize if I haven't replied to your reviews for previous chapters yet! I love replying to them individually but I also really wanted to update this week, so I will get through all of them together! xx

Clary's eyes opened slowly on Friday morning, waking up naturally, given she didn't have an appointment until late that morning, so she hadn't needed to set her alarm before she had gone to bed. She took in a few breaths through her nose, blinking and rubbing at her eyes with her fists before her eyebrows pulled together as she noted a strange noise coming from inside her apartment. She lifted her head off the pillows that she had burrowed herself into last night, looking toward where there was light flooding into the apartment, and she found the source of the noise.

A guitar.

Clary sat up properly and looked toward the large windowsill on the far side of the apartment, beside the TV. Jace was sitting on the windowsill, one leg sprawled out the window and onto the fire escape and the other leg was folded underneath him. He was only wearing a pair of jeans, the button undone, and the sun that was streaming through the window was catching on his messy golden hair.

He looked gorgeous.

And the guitar that he was playing...

She glanced around, over to where her clothes from last night were in a pile on the floor—along with the rest of her clothes, because not much ever actually made it into the drawers—and she saw a dark blue shirt folded on the chair beside her bed, which she knew was Jace's. He almost always folded his clothes before they got into bed, only not doing it a few times when they had been completely distracted. She slid out of bed and padded softly over to where Jace was, dressed in an oversized concert tee-shirt that she slept in and a pair of sleeping shorts.

"I didn't know you played," she said quietly. Jace lifted his head from where it had been tipped forward, and he stopped playing so that he could take the cigarette out of his mouth and reach over to put it down in the ashtray.

"Not as well as Isabelle and Raphael, obviously," Jace answered with a shrug. "But me and Alec can both play okay. Isabelle taught me and Alec quite a bit when we were teenagers." He ran his long, nimble over the wires of the guitar. Clary didn't recognize the music he was playing, but it sounded pretty. It was something light and simple, but he played naturally, and Clary could honestly watch his fingers move over the strings all day.

"You're good," she commented with a smile. Jace gave her a small smile in return, a few strands hanging over his eye.

"I saw it over there—" Jace nodded to the far side of the apartment, behind her bed, where she had a free standing coat rail for her dresses and jackets, given she didn't have a built in wardrobe. "Hope it's okay." Clary licked her lips and shrugged a shoulder.

"It was my brothers, he used to play," Clary replied, pursing her lips together and turning to head toward her kitchen. A confused look crossed over Jace's face, but from the way that she had her back to him, Jace was guessing that this brother he had never heard of wasn't a conversation that she was willing to have. Clary filled up the jug with water and flicked it on and then picked up a coffee cup that was sitting on the bench. She looked into it, screwed up her nose and then went over to her cupboard to pull a clean one out. "You want coffee?" She asked, turning her head to look over her shoulder at him.

"Already got one," Jace picked up the coffee cup that was next to the ashtray that he had balanced on the windowsill in front of him. Clary nodded and then turned back to the bench. She let out a groan as she looked at the dishes and then stretched her arms above her head. As she put the plug into the sink and began running warm water, she lifted her voice to be heard over the water.

"So you play the drums, you play the guitar—any other instruments?" She aske him.

"I took saxophone lessons when I was in high school, but that was just through music class, so I was never that great. Other than drums...The next thing I'm best at is piano," Jace said. He slid off the windowsill, picking up the coffee cup as he walked into the kitchen.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," Jace nodded. "Haven't played it in a long time though. Mum and dad had one, an incredible one, and I loved playing on it. But given I don't really get back there anymore, and I don't know anyone else with one, and playing on a keyboard doesn't really do it justice, I don't really do it anymore. It's just not the same." He pursed his lips together, tapping his finger against the side of his coffee cup as he watched Clary scrub at a plate. "I told you yesterday I wanted to be a music teacher, right?" She stopped scrubbing so hard at the plate and she looked over at him, nodding slowly. She went back to cleaning the plate, but very slowly, obviously listening closely to what he was saying. "Mainly I wanted to be a piano teacher."

"What happened?" Clary asked carefully and softly, not wanting to push him too far.

"Eh," Jace shrugged a shoulder, moving so that he was standing behind her, leaning against her fridge. She had a mass of mismatched magnets over the fridge with a couple of photos stuck to it and a few take out menus, so he had to carefully lean against one side. "Life. There was this girl...She cheated on me for months. My dad used to cheat on my mum all the time, and it just fucked her up. They're still married, actually, although I have no idea why. It's kind of why I don't have anything to do with them anymore—I used to feel sorry for my mum and pissed at my dad, but she stays with him and pretends that everything is fine because she likes being a kept woman and I just can't deal with that shit."

"I get that," Clary put the plate on the rack and then picked up a pot, still not turning around to look at him, and he was glad. It was easier talking to the back of her head than seeing her face right now.

"Yeah...Well, it fucked me up for a while, really through me through a loop. My school work really took a hit and there was a semester when I was barely there and the only reason that I didn't have to repeat it was because Alec and Isabelle covered for me with some of my professors and so I didn't totally fail the attendance part," Jace admitted, and it felt kind of weird, saying all this to Clary. They never really spoke about things that were this serious, and this was one of the lowest periods of his life. "I managed to get enough credits to get my degree, but only just, and it was because I was doing so well at the beginning, or I would have been fucked. So now I just have a shit ton of student loans and two part time jobs to help pay them off." Clary was now done with the dishes and she turned around to look at him. The jug had sounded off, signalling that the water was boiled, but she was ignoring it.

"You never looked for a job as a music teacher? Pretty sure you would still be able to play for your band in the weekends," she prompted gently.

"There aren't many jobs going for a guy with completely average grades and references, plus the whole tattoos and piercings turn off a lot of people as well," Jace twisted his mouth and shrugged a shoulder, letting out a snort. "Guess I didn't really think that one through."

"It shouldn't matter," Clary stated and Jace met her eyes with a raised eyebrow. "I mean, I know it does, but it shouldn't." He smiled at her but she didn't look very happy. "It pisses me off—there are so many fuckers out there who screw people over, dressed up in thousand dollar suits and fancy hair cuts and bloody dimples, but it's people who express themselves with art on their skin that get dirty looks."

"What you got against dimples?" Jace asked jokingly, showing off the dimple in his cheek with his smirk, and Clary just rolled her eyes at him, but it looked as though the frustration on her face ebbed away a little. "I know what you mean, but it is what it is."

"So you plan on working at the garage, then? And playing with your band?" Clary asked with a tilt of her head. Jace could see where she was coming from and how she might view his situation. She had a job that she absolutely loved and she worked with people that she loved. Not many people were lucky enough to have that—in fact, barely anyone could say that. Some got one or the other, but not often both.

Obviously she didn't understand him settling, even if one of his incomes came from playing in his band.

"I love playing with Alec and Iz and Raph. They're my family," Jace said firmly. "If I could do that full time I would. Isn't that most kids dream? To be famous musicians? Make millions of dollars?" He grinned. "I like what we have—playing in bars and clubs. I would hate it if we got to the point where we might have to change our sound to fit some persons idea of us. And so, because we're small, I have to have another job. Hodge is great, I like the guys I work with, even if it's something that I'm overly interested in. I'm happy." Clary watched him for a moment and then she stepped forward. Her fingers reached out and skimmed up his arm.

"Don't give up on what you want—on your dream," she said quietly. It sounded sort of ridiculous, calling him wanting to be a music teacher 'a dream', but he guessed it was right.

"Don't worry, I haven't, Clary," he turned his hand, so that it was palm upward, and as her fingers slid down his arm, this time they played over his wrist for a moment, and then she slipped her figners between his. It was a sweet notion that made Jace give her hand a squeeze. "I've got a job interview in a few days time, but I've had a dozen of them, and never heard anything back."

"Well, don't stop trying," her words were soft and she lifted their twined hands until they were between their chests and she smiled as she dropped a soft, uncharacteristic kiss to his fingers. "And I want to hear you play piano some time—always knew those amazing fingers of yours couldn't just be used for playing drums."

"I'm pretty sure you're aware that they do more than play drums," Jace smirked down at her and Clary let out a laugh as she rolled her eyes.

"I'm trying to pay you a fucking compliment here," she snapped playfully at him. "I bet you're pretty fucking amazing."

"Fuck yeah I am," Jace grinned down at her and he loved the way her green eyes danced back up at him.

Let me know what you think x