After spending that Thursday night at Clary's place, things got better between the two of them. They started texting more regularly and Jace stopped by the tattoo parlor a couple of times to pick her up for lunch or dinner, and she started coming to most of the rehearsals for the Downworlders and sometimes her and Jace would go out alone together afterwards, or sometimes it would be the whole group of them. She stayed over at his place after one of their gigs that had gone incredible and everyone had gotten completely drunk, and they had curled up together in bed.

But they hadn't had sex.

They hadn't had sex at all.

It was strange, because it wasn't like Jace didn't want to have sex with her—whenever he was getting himself off in the shower in the morning, it was her face and her body that was playing in a loop in his head. And it wasn't as though she didn't want him, because she still looked him over appreciatively, especially his hands.

But neither of them made a move.

And they both seemed happy with that.

Jace was just finishing up at the garage when there was a whistle from Daniel and Jace looked up to see Clary walking into the garage. She was wearing a loose singlet that showed off the tattoos up and down both her arms—the black and grey tattoos that were on her left arm and the beautiful water coloured tattoo's up her right arm and over her shoulder—and a pair of high waisted denim shorts that showed off her long legs. She had bracelets all around both of her wrists and her hair was free around her face, and she had a few bands around one of her ankles as well. There were also the lyrics that were tattooed down the side of her thigh that Jace had trailed his fingers over a dozen times before when they were laying in bed together.

"Hey," Clary gave a wide smile to the two other men in the work shop before her eyes reached Jace and her smile grew. "I was wondering if you wanted to grab dinner?"

"Yeah," Jace grinned back at her. "Let me just wash up," he held up his hands, showing off his arms and hands, which were covered in grease and oil. He headed toward the back of the garage where the sink was, with heavy duty soap and a wire brush. He also took off the shirt he was wearing, swapping it out for one of the spare ones he brought with him in the mornings, so he didn't have to leave in a sweaty, dirty shirt.

"Ready?" Clary raised an eyebrow as he came back out and he nodded. He jerked his head in a nod at the other guys, who were still watching her with appreciation, before throwing an arm around her shoulders and heading out the front door. Clary was small against his side, but there was a bounce in her step that forced him to be the one lengthen his strides to keep up with her. "So I'm absolutely craving curly fries and onion rings."

"How the fuck are you so tiny when all you ever eat is deep fried or packed with preservatives?" Jace asked with a roll of his eyes.

"Good genetics," Clary replied with a grin. There was a diner about two blocks from Jace's work—the same one that they had started going to after rehearsal—and Clary had completely fallen in love with their curly fries. Curly fries and their strawberry banana thickshakes, which she would usually have together. They got to the diner and went to the end booth, which they would go to whether they were together or if they were with the rest of their friends, and smiled at the waitress when she came over. She gave them their menus and then went away, even though they already knew what they were going to order.

"Any good stories today?" Jace asked as he leaned back in the booth opposite Clary, crossing his arms over his chest and grinning at her.

"Not really," Clary scrunched up her nose. "I had a girl who wanted a butterfly on her ass, but that's nothing particularly interesting." Jace rolled his eyes.

"Do you know how many butterfly tattoos you've done?" He asked.

"Nope," Clary shook her head. "Too many to count. Not that there's anything wrong with butterfly tattoos," she quickly pointed out to him. "They're just..."

"Overused? Cliche?" Jace prompted and Clary tried to narrow her eyes at him, probably out of respect for the amount of clients that she had coming in who wanted butterfly tattoos, but then she couldn't help but let out a snort and grin. "Yeah, that's what I thought," he grinned and then looked up as the waitress came back. They both put in their orders and then settled back in the booth. Clary had her arms stretched out across the table, playing with a straw and Jace chewed his lip into his mouth as he looked down at her wrists.

She was wearing her watch on one arm with two fabric bands tied around a silver medallion and then there were about ten or fifteen bracelets of varying colours and styles up her other arm. Jace glanced up at her face, and noted that she looked relaxed and he felt bad about what he was about to do, but he had to know.

Jace reached out for Clary, two of his fingers brushing over the outside of her thumb, before his other hand reached out as well, his fingers going lightly around her wrists and turning them over. She tensed—just like she always did when he touched her wrists—but she didn't pull them away. He swallowed hard as he turned them over so that her palms were facing upward.

Slowly, he pushed the bracelets on one arm up, and the watch band up as much as he could, although it was secured quite tightly. Her right arm was where he saw the scars the most, but he could see the beginning of them under her watch and obviously hidden more by the bracelet with the thick bands and medallion. He had expected something like scars—he had come to that conclusion a month or so into them fooling around that something bad had happened, given the way she would always flinch if he grabbed her wrists through sex or the way she always kept them covered up.

"These look old," he murmured, tracing over the skin. And he was glad that they looked old, he had no idea how he would handle it if the scars were still vivid red—or worse, scabbed over. No, these were faded and only slightly pink. Clary's hands were tense but she wasn't pulling away as she looked up at him.

"They're from a while ago," she agreed, her voice catching slightly in her throat. Jace felt bad, taking advantage of a moment where she was clearly in a good mood, but it had been something that he had wondered about for a while. Plus, he didn't want to broach the subject when they were alone at her apartment, because he didn't want her to think that she didn't have some sort of escape. Here, they had privacy at the end booth, but if she wanted to leave and get out of the conversation, she could easily get up and walk away.

But she didn't.

She stayed where she was.

"Can you tell me about it?" Jace asked softly. He didn't ask if she wanted to talk about it, because that was a stupid question.

"I went to a really bad place when I was younger," she murmured. "There was...There was some family stuff that happened that had be in a pretty bad head space. And then it just kind of got worse and there was a guy..." Clary scrunched up her nose and tilted her head to the side, and he felt her hands begin to reflexively curl inwards. "Kind of why I don't do relationships." Jace's eyebrows drew in and he let out an angry breath.

"You know that not all guys are like that, right?" Jace told her, even though he knew she already knew.

"Doesn't make it easier, though," Clary pointed out and she began pulling her hands back across the table. Jace loosened his hold, letting her take her hands back and shook out her wrists so that the bands and the watch slipped back down to their original position. He wanted to reach over and kiss her, but then their food and drinks are arriving and Clary looked pretty intent on them, so he let the moment slide. Clary started dunking her curly fries into her strawberry banana thickshake and he rolled his eyes as she shoved the first one into her mouth. "Don't judge me," Clary said through a mouthful of food and he laughed.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Jace responded with a grin. They ate in companionable silence, with Jace snagging some of Clary's onion rings and Clary reaching over and stealing some of Jace's corn fritter in response. After they finished eating, they went up to pay for their meal. Clary insisted on paying since he had paid for their meal last time, and Jace let her, because one thing he had learnt in the time that he had known Clary was that there really wasn't much point in arguing with her. Clary was ordering an uber to go and meet Kaelie while Jace waited with her outside the cafe, because he was only a few blocks in the opposite direction of his work place.

"So I'm having dinner with my mum and Luke next week," Clary said abruptly, catching Jace off guard, because they had just been talking about the Star Wars marathon that Simon was organizing for all of them. "Did you want to come?" She looked a little nervous even though she was trying to hide it with her nonchalant tone.

"Is this like a meet the parents kind of deal?" Jace joked lightly, giving her a smirk, and that seemed to get rid of the nervousness in her eyes as she rolled them.

"No," she retorted. "All of my friends know my mum and Luke. It's nothing special." He knew that she didn't mean it to be hurtful, but Jace wasn't too sure how to take that comment. On one hand, it was a good thing, because Jace wasn't quite prepared for the whole relationship talk with her parents when there wasn't actually a relationship that he was aware of.

On the other hand, he really wouldn't mind there being a relationship, so just being classed as her friend kind of stung.

"Sounds good," Jace nodded as she checked her phone and saw that her uber was almost there. "What day?"

"Monday," she replied.

"I've got that interview Monday morning, and then I've got work after," he jerked his head in the direction of the garage. "Where did you want to meet?"

"I could just get an uber here and we could head over together," Clary suggested. Jace wanted to disagree with her, and go home after he had work for a shower and a proper change of clothes before he met her mum and step-dad, but he didn't want to sound as though he was trying too hard, so he just nodded.

"Perfect."

I just want to write a quick note...Please make sure you guys are looking after yourself. The world is scary right now and...Yeah. Please look after yourself and your family and friends. Please stay safe and sane and remember you're important, valid and loved.

My top 10 songs of this week are;

1) You Broke Me First - Tate McRae. 2) Must Have Been The Wind - Alec Benjamin. 3) Daechwita - Agust D. 4) Too Sad To Cry - Sasha Sloan. 5) Puss - Jimin featuring IRON. 6) Burn It - Agust D featuring MAX. 7) Boys Will Be Bugs - Cavetown. 8) Stupid - Tate McRae. 9) What Do You Think? - Agust D. 10) Cruel Intentions - Delacey featuring G-Eazy.

And then...I've recently watched Whisper of the Heart and Kiki's Delivery Service, which are both just beautiful and soothing movies if you need something sweet to just transport you away.

Leave a review, let me know what you think, let me know what you're listening to and watching x

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