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

The car was quiet in the car driving out of the city and back toward Clary and Jace's house, and Clary chewed down on her bottom lip as she stared out the window. The night had been going so well, and she'd had this vision of the three of them going back to their place and falling into bed and rolling around together and carrying on their great time naked, and she had been looking forward to that, but those plans seemed to have gone up in smoke. Sebastian was behind the wheel and Jace was in the passenger seat, eyes fixed out the window and drumming his fingers along the on the centre console where his arm was resting, his whole body tense. His whole jaw had been tense and a nerve was twitching as they had gotten up from their table and gone in to pay, Sebastian with his arm resting around Clary's waist, his hand splayed out on her hip and tucking her in close to his body, which made her feel a lot better knowing that at least he wasn't upset. Or, at least not as upset as Jace.

When they pulled into the driveway, Sebastian didn't turn off the motor, just left it idling there, and Clary's eyebrows pulled together in the back seat, reaching slowly for the buckle of her seat belt and leaning forward slightly. Jace seemed confused as well, although his brow was still furrowed and his lips were definitely turned down in an upset expression.

"Are...Are you not coming in?" Clary asked hesitantly, and it made her stomach squeeze at the idea of her first official date ending and Sebastian not coming home with them. Sebastian glanced between them, as though considering something, and then he twisted in his seat, reaching back and cupping Clary's face, pulling her to the edge of her seat so that he could stretch out and give her a quick kiss on the crown of her head.

"We didn't get to finish dessert," Sebastian said quietly, hand still resting on Clary's face, thumb brushing over her cheek as though to soothe her, but he was looking toward Jace. "I'm going to go and get us some ice cream while you guys talk."

"We have ice cream inside," Clary began.

"You guys need to talk," Sebastian reiterated and there was a huff of breath from Jace, that made Clary's nose wrinkle. It felt wrong, like they were sending Sebastian away, and she was new to all of this—especially with three of them in the relationship—but she just felt as though it should have been all of them together. Plus, Sebastian was the most level-headed one right now. She would feel better if he was there. "I feel that there's some things that need to be said between the two of you, alright?" His voice was gentle and Clary looked back at Jace, and he still wasn't looking at her, and that made her stomach plummet. "I won't be longer than half an hour or so, okay?"

"We'll leave the door unlocked," Clary mumbled, tipping her face into his palm for a moment longer before she was pulling away and reaching for the handle. She jutted her chin forward as headed toward the front door, because she refused to walk with her head down, but there was a definite feeling of trepidation in his stomach. When she looked back over her shoulder, Jace and Sebastian were still talking, Sebastian with one hand resting on his steering wheel while Jace was just sitting there, staring stonily ahead from what Clary could make out in the shadows. She swallowed hard and looked back at the door, shoving the key into the lock and pushing open the front door. She kicked off her shoes, letting them crumple in a pile by the front door and then started walking toward the lounge, flicking the lights on as she went, glad that there was a timer on the heat pump so that there was no chill in the air.

There was going to be plenty of that when Jace came in, she was pretty certain of that, knowing him and how he could get.

She sat down on the back of the couch, crossing her arms over her chest and her eyes trained across the kitchen and toward the wall where Jace would appear once he rounded the corner from the front door. She could hear the sound of Sebastian's car backing out of the driveway a moment later and the flash of headlights shifting through the kitchen window, and then she heard the sound of the front door closing, undoubtedly behind Jace. He didn't appear around the corner right away, she heard some rustling around, and absently knew that he was tidying up the shoes that she had just kicked off, and then he walked into view. Clary pursed her lips as she glanced him over.

"So," she began, because she just wanted this to be over. She didn't know what exactly was going to happen, but she just wanted it to be done, she wasn't used to fighting with Jace, and now that their relationship was more, she really didn't like the feeling in the pit of her stomach and the fact that Jace might be hurting because of her, somehow.

And she really wanted Sebastian to come back and everything to be okay.

"So," Jace rubbed a hand over his face.

"Are you pissed at me? Or Maia? Or what?" Clary asked bluntly, getting right to the point. Jace let his hand fall back to his side as he looked over at Clary, his eyes searching her face as he approached her slowly.

"I'm not pissed at you," Jace began, but there was a weird emphasis and Clary already felt on edge and she pushed herself up off the back of the couch, even though that really didn't add much height to her, still needing to tip her head back to look up at Jace as they stood a few inches apart.

"Then what?" Clary demanded, frustrations rising up in her throat like a physical lump.

"I don't know!" Jace snapped, voice rising for the first time in a long time. Her and Jace didn't really fight. They had definitely had fights, given how stubborn both of them were, but they weren't fights like this, where it felt like there was so much on the line, and Clary just...She wanted Jace to be okay, and she wanted Sebastian to be okay, she just wanted them all to be okay. "But I've never hated Maia as much I did tonight."

"I know, I'm sorry, that was fucking shit of her," Clary agreed, words clipped. "She'll just be—I don't know, pissed or something? Maybe? Because I haven't really been replying to her messages and stuff. I pretty much said that I was with you guys and then haven't replied since," Clary shrugged. "But—it doesn't matter what she said, right? Because this is about us, right?" Jace was still frowning down at her, but he definitely heard the pleading edge to her tone and she could see the way it was softening his expression. It wasn't usual for her to sound like that, usually she was all spit and fire if they got into an argument, but it was different. She wasn't arguing with her best friend, she was arguing with one of her boyfriends, and that made it different.

"Right," Jace muttered, letting out a heavy breath through his teeth, a harsh hiss escaping. Clary stared at him, squinting a little, before letting out a sigh and walking past him, heading toward her bedroom. She wasn't sure if she wanted Jace to follow her or not, but her head just felt as though it was all over the place and her chest was hurting in a hollow kind of way that she didn't really understand, she hadn't felt it hurt that way since she was younger and she realized that her parents were never really going to be around.

She should have just told Maia to fuck off, right from the start.

In her annoyance, Clary kicked at the bookshelf in her room, and a few picture frames fell over, but she didn't bother picking them up, face planting onto her bed and just taking in a few deep breaths. She wasn't really sure if this was the part where she was meant to cry or call up her girls and complain about what assholes her boyfriends were, she didn't really know what the right protocol here was meant to be, but she kind of just wanted both of her lovers on either side of her until she went to sleep. She was still wearing her jeans and the skimpy, glittery top that she had worn to dinner, and it wouldn't be comfortable to sleep in at all, but she really just didn't have the energy to move right now, suddenly so drained.

"Clary?" Jace's voice was a lot softer behind her, and it was then that Clary felt tears spring to her eyes. She tried to be quiet as she sniffed, because she felt like an idiot as the tears welled up over her eyelids and began to spill down her cheek, onto the bed covers. "Clary..." Jace cleared his throat, and then she could hear him coming into the room, closing the door partially behind him, the room dark and quiet. "Fuck, I'm sorry, okay? I just..." he sat down on the edge of the bed, she felt the dip in the mattress and then his hand was resting gently on her ankle. "I'm sorry."

"Why are you so mad?" Clary asked, her voice sounding thick. Jace was quite for a moment, and then his fingers moved, slipping under the hem of her jeans so that his fingers could rest directly against her skin, thumb rubbing gently over the bone of her ankle.

"It wasn't...It wasn't the fact she kissed you in front of us," Jace's fingers tightened around her ankle and even though Clary wasn't looking at him, she could tell he was lying, and he sighed, because he knew that she knew. "Okay, it wasn't just the fact that she kissed you in front of us, as though she had some kind of claim on you—" now it was probably a good thing that Jace couldn't see her face, because the tears were still sticky on her cheeks but they weren't falling anymore and she was arching her eyebrows at the choice of words. "Fuck, I don't know—this is coming out all fucking wrong," he let out a huff and then pulled back his arms, and Clary rolled over on the bed, still stretched out and laying back, but now she could see his face and his arms were crossed over his chest tightly. "It was what she said."

"What about it?" Clary asked quietly.

"How she just—how she just said to text her when it's all over," Jace's voice was even quieter than Clary's, and even though she was looking toward him, she couldn't really make out his expression because of how dark the room was, the only light coming from the moon and outside lights through the window, a little blocked from the trees growing just outside. "As though—like she just knew it was going to be over." Clary blinked, and then her heart was hurting again, but it was hurting in a different way.

For Jace.

"Jace, I..." Clary trailed off. They had talked about a lot, even if sometimes it felt like pulling teeth, and Jace had been open about the way he had felt about Clary for years. Sebastian had already known, it wasn't news to him, and he'd definitely prompted Jace to tell Clary, saying that they needed to make sure everything was out in the open. Clary had been surprised at how deep his feelings were and for how long, but she'd obviously seen how much it had taken him to tell her, and she thought the conversation had gone well. He'd told her, pretty grudgingly, and Sebastian had been moving easily in the kitchen as it happened, making coffee for the three of them, everything comforting and domestic, that he'd kinda sorta pined for a while over her and had never really thought something like this was going to happen.

But it had.

It had and it still was.

"Jace," Clary tried again. "I'm not—" she cleared her throat, pulling herself up into a seated position, crossing her legs in front of her. "Why?" Jace let out a wet sounding snort and rubbed a hand over his face, and there was a slump in his shoulders that made him seem smaller.

"It was just...It was just the way she said it," Jace muttered. "Like she just knew. And, I mean, i-it's not like—" he broke off again and he pulled at his hair and Clary frowned, shifting forward, rolling her weight onto her knees so that she was crouching in front of him. "Sometimes I still fucking think that this is all going to be too much for you and you're just going to wake up one day and leave," Jace blurted out and Clary blinked, the tears in her eyes welling up again. "I know it's not fair, it's just—you were never interested in a relationship before and I-I—"

"Jace," Clary let out a deep breath, gripping his hands and squeezing them tight, hoping that if she held them really tightly, he would know that she wasn't going to go anywhere. "Jace. Baby," her voice had lowered to something more intimate as she closed the gap between them, squishing herself up against his side. "You can't...You can't hold it against me that I didn't want a relationship before. I wasn't interested in a relationship with anyone. But...You're you. And we're us. And we're an us with Sebastian, and I...Love that. I want that. I...I've never lied to you, Jace, not ever, right?" Jace nodded in agreement straight away. "I promise you that I'm not lying to you now. I want this with you and Bash so bad." Her eyes were glittering with tears and sincerity, and even in the dark, he could see that.

It felt natural as their lips came together, neither of them mentioning the taste of saltiness shared between them from tears. Clary's body melted against Jace's, soft and warm, tugging urgently at his shirt. There was some awkward shimmying, given Clary's jeans were so tight they were practically painted on and Jace's definitely weren't a loose fit either, and Clary's heart soared as Jace let out a laugh as their noses bumped as they rolled back onto the bed so that they were both laying down, and she giggled as she pulled one of the soft blankets over them, tugging it over her shoulders as she straddled Jace's lap, body curled forward so that she could cup his face with her hand.

"Do you think Sebastian knew you sometimes feel that way?" She whispered as she gently pressed kisses to his lower lip. "Do you think that's why he left us to talk alone?" She brushed her fingers through his hair, the tips trailing over one of his ears.

"Maybe...Probably," Jace admittedly quietly. "I don't know what we would do without him."

"We'd be a mess," Clary let out a giggle and even in the dark she knew Jace was smiling, and she pressed their lips back together as his hand reached down between their bodies to wrap a hand loosely around his cock. She could feel him hard and warm against her stomach and she had to break the kiss to reach out for the condoms in her bedside table, bringing one back and dropping it onto the bed beside Jace's head, on the pillow. His knuckles brushed against the soft skin of her stomach as his hand twisted around his cock, and then he was turning his hand so that he was cupping between her legs, and gently brushed two fingers over her clit. Clary's back arched in an instant reaction, letting out a moan that filled the dark room and spilled out into the hallway, rocking her hips forward as Jace began to circle her clit.

She came over his fingers and dripped down onto his cock, and then with a growl, Jace was rolling them over and grabbing at the condom, ripping at the wrapper with the corner of his teeth and rolled it over himself before sliding into the warm heat of her cunt. Their sighs and groans mingled as Jace pushed into her over and over again. Clary wrapped her legs around his waist and gripped his shoulders tightly, her fingernails biting through the skin, and it wasn't the roughest or the most exciting sex that they'd ever had, but there was something else pulsing between them that felt so completely different from every other time. His eyes felt as though they could see right through her, and one hand was reached back and gripping her leg, keeping it curved up and over his hip for the best angle as he pushed into her, while the other was pressed into the pillow by her head, so that he could keep his balance as he looked down at her.

Clary's heart felt full as he began to rock into her faster and she arched her body and met his thrusts and his lips came down and met hers in a messy clash of teeth and tongue as his orgasm washed over him and his movements became jerking before stilling.

They didn't bother redressing afterwards, Jace tying off the condom and wrapping it in some tissue paper from the box next to Clary's bed, tossing it toward her bed, and then pulling the blankets up and over their slightly sweaty figures. Jace tugged Clary in close to him, kissing her shoulder as she wiggled her hips back into the cradle of his hips and got comfortable.

"Clary?" Jace's voice was heavy with sleep and Clary just hummed in response. "I'm sorry I have these thoughts." Clary didn't reply and he thought that maybe she had drifted off to sleep. But then she tightened her fingers around the hand that was resting on her stomach.

"Just tell me if you do—tell us if you do," Clary replied sleepily, but sincerely. "Because I'll tell you that this is the happiest I've ever been, with you guys, every time, if that's what it takes."

Jace was still smiling when Sebastian got back, undoubtedly going around the house and making sure everything was locked and secured and also putting away the ice cream he had brought before he found them in Clary's room. They weren't quite asleep yet, although definitely on the cusp, and he undressed quietly before slipping into the bed with them, on Clary's other side. She made a noise under her breath as she shoved her face into Sebastian's neck while still gripping at Jace's hand over her stomach, and Sebastian stretched out an arm so that he could drape it over both her body and Jace's, fingertips brushing against Jace's side.

Then they slept, now that they were all in the bed together.

Let me know what you think x