A/N: Clary and Jon start their lives in New York. Enjoy.
Chapter Three
Clary POV
"Welcome to the New York institute," Magnus semi shouts cheerily. I like his happy demeanour and already hope that we'll be seeing more of him. I can feel Jonathan's hard grip on my hand. I think he's nervous. Hiding his demon side without any reprieve will be hard for him. He would never admit it, but I know he wants to be liked for my sake, so I don't have to make excuses for him, and the added pressure of that probably stresses him out, too. He just doesn't understand that I wouldn't want to change him for the world, he's perfect the way he is. I shake myself out of my thoughts and the first thing I see is the space we're standing in, a spacious converted church that's been modernised throughout. It's beautiful. The lighting is perfect and already I can't wait to get my sketchbook out.
"I bet you're thinking about sketching," Jonathan whispers into my ear.
I smile at him ,"You know me too well." We turn around slowly, and my brother suddenly lets go of my hand and steps away from me. For some reason that upsets me. I always get nervous meeting new people and he grounds me so well, he makes me feel lots more confident.
In front of us is a group of six. There's a couple who are probably our parents' age. The woman is stunning, with dark hair and warm dark eyes that have kindness in them. Her husband, however, looks quite stern and business like in comparison. He's handsome though. Shadowhunters just have an amazing gene pool. Next to them are three teenagers and a little boy. A very handsome tall boy with dark features, who seems to struggle with direct eye contact, shy then I guess. Next to him stands an absolutely stunning goddess with curves in all the right places. She's dressed in quite daring clothing, a short red dress and high heeled boots, what interesting attire for the afternoon. These two are definitely related to the couple, so is the little boy. The odd one out is this other tanned blond guy. I start inspecting him and have to swallow a sigh. He is a beautiful specimen of a man. He's definitely more of a manly brute guy, power and confidence ooze out of him. He's tall with a super muscular body. I can literally see his abs through his T-shirt. His many dark runes are visible through his white top and it suits him too well.
I slowly lift my gaze and can feel myself growing hot. Unusual golden lion eyes are piercing me. He's seen me stare. I blush and quickly look away. What an idiot I am. I must have been gawking at him and he obviously realised it. I gaze back at him and his eyes hit me again. Then the guy smirks at me and I really just want to wipe that smirk off his face. Next to me, I can feel Jon growing stiffer by the minute, he's bad with new people I tell myself, so I lean closer to him to brush his arm delicately and he relaxes instantly.
"Hello you two, I'm Maryse Lightwood and this is my husband Robert Lightwood and these are our children Alec, Isabelle, Max and Jace." She points them out to us. So his name is Jace, I smile to myself, I like it.
There's a moment of everyone greeting everyone, then Isabelle links her arm into mine and starts walking me away. "Come, let's show you around." I turn around to make sure that Jon is following and give him an encouraging nod. Isabelle also looks around, and then she whispers to me , "Your brother is hot isn't he, is he seeing anyone?"
"Hmmm no, I think he was, but we're here now, best you ask him Isabelle."
"Oh please call me Izzy and I will, " she smiles at me and adds, "I like you. I'm getting a good vibe. I'm sure the two of us will be best friends in no time."
I smile at that. I can hear Jon in the background giving very snippy short answers to Alec's and Jace's interrogation and already I hope that they'll get past it and like him. Having some guy friends will be so good for him. Izzy is dragging me down the hall, pointing out odd things, like hidden passageways that aren't hidden. The library, I make a mental note of that, the canteen and so on. Finally she drags me down another hallway. "So this is the girl's wing, no boys allowed," she turns around and gives a knowing look to Jonathan who ignores her. What a great start.
"And this is your room Clarissa."
"Call me Clary, please."
"Clary, sorry. Anyway, I took the liberty of leaving your stuff in your room, I can't wait to see your clothes," she says giggling and adds, "By the way, we're going out tonight, so be ready in a few hours, ok?"
I nod and smile at her. "No problem, I'll be ready. I'm going to unpack and catch up with you later." I look at Jon and suddenly I'm really worried. His eyes are pitch black and I can see him doing his concentrated breathing exercises. "Jon why don't you stay and help me move some of the furniture?" I ask straight away.
"I can do that whilst Alec shows Jonathan to his room," Jace cuts in, which seems to make Jon's grimace go worse.
Something has happened. "No, no that's fine, but thanks for the offer Jace," I add a sunshine smile, hoping that he'll leave it at that.
Jace seems taken aback. "But he won't know where to go."
He seems a bit annoyed, how strange. I need them to leave. Now. "I'm sure we'll find it, but thanks. Thanks so much guys, see you later. Can't wait to go out tonight," I add hastily, desperately trying to get their attention away from my brother whose face looks positively demonic right now.
JON POV
I am going to kill him. I am going to punch my fist through his ribcage and pull out his heart. I am going to snap that neck of his like a twig. I am going to rip his head off. And so goes my inner dialogue. Suddenly I can feel warmth around me. Clary. She's hugging me and rubbing my back with slow circles. We're in her room, I guess. How did I get in here? I must have been completely wrapped in my blazing hell. I bend my head to nuzzle her hair and breathe in her scent. I hug her more fiercely, feeling her slight frame in my arms and slowly my blood cools. She's my angel antidote.
From the moment we stepped through that portal and I saw him. That stupid arrogant oaf Jace. Saw him checking out Clary. Caught him staring at her, taking in her form and smiling at her, I completely lost it. I haven't been able to take any notice of anything since. Alec and Jace were talking and I'm sure all I did was grunt back. Then Jace kept checking out Clary's ass and when he tried to get into Clary's room I was so very close to killing him. My vision went white and I was so close. Clary must have realised something was off and dragged me in here. She's pulling me towards the sofa and makes me sit, then she kneels in front of me, looking at me like a beautiful angel. She's stunning, her green meadow eyes look at me lovingly.
"Are you ok Jon? Let me get you a glass of water."
"No that's fine Clary," I pause and add hesitantly, "Could you maybe hold me. Please?" I hate asking her, but my demon is still punching my insides, wanting me to find Jace and kill him. She gets up and snuggles to my side, leaning her head against my shoulder and we sit like this for a while.
Clary POV
It's been over an hour and we're lying on the sofa. Jonathan is spooning me from behind. The moment is so serene and I could lie here like this forever. He makes me feel so content and safe. I know we're closer than siblings should be or what society deems appropriate, but it's always been Jon and I, and this closeness, it's normal to us. It also makes me feel whole. Like without him, a part of me would be missing. I've never told Jon this, but I do feel like we're two pieces of a heart. I think he may have fallen asleep. He must have been really overwhelmed by everything and his emotions probably ran high, which most definitely tired him out based on the slight snoring I hear from behind me.
We've not spoken about what happened earlier. I'll ask him. Soon. I give myself another five minutes of this perfect moment, before I carefully get up and stretch thoroughly. I look at Jon's sleeping form. He looks so peaceful when he sleeps and he's beautiful. He's tall, so his legs are bent to fit the sofa. He's slim, but toned. He's graceful looking compared to Jace. His shape can be deceiving. His demon side makes him incredibly strong. Naturally, muscly guys like Jace will think they can best him in a fight, but they won't be able to.
His black T-shirt has ridden up slightly. I glance at his perfect abs and the runes that look elegant against his pale skin. I can also see his V-shape that shapes his hips and I get a sudden warm feeling in my stomach. I avert my eyes. Jon always wears black, which doesn't help him in looking any less devilish. Girls find him attractive and I can see why, Izzy was basically drooling at him earlier. I look at his face, his sharp cheekbones, light blond hair that's so light that sometimes, it looks white. We look so different. I'm all Jocelyn. I've never seen Valentine. I've never even seen a photograph of him, but I know mum mentioned once that my brother looks a lot like him.
My heart cries for Jon, he doesn't have it easy and this moment of sleeping peace will hopefully make him seem more human once he's up. He looks like a graceful sleeping angel. If people knew the battles he fights daily. The struggle to be good, to be good for me. I'm sure if he stayed with Valentine, he'd be the demon right now and there would be no sight of this beautifully sad boy in front of me. I lean towards him stroking his hair and kiss his cheek. "I love you brother," I whisper into his ear and can see him smiling through his sleep. Then I get unpacking.
Xxx
Jon wakes up just as I put my last piece of clothing into the wardrobe. He looks around and asks if I need any help. He watches me for a moment, stretches like an untroubled tiger would, then smiles at me. He looks so much better. "We're going out soon, do you want to get ready?"
He nods and starts moving towards the door. Suddenly he runs back towards me and pulls me into a hug. "Thank you little Lily," he looks down at me with adoration, "Thank you for existing and thank you for earlier, and sorry for you know," he says sheepishly. But he's used my favourite childhood nickname, so instead of finding out what happened earlier, I can only smile at him. His acute sense of smell always gets a scent of lilies from me, hence the 'Lily' nickname.
I kiss him on the cheek, "No problem, any time big brother."
A/N: So this was a little bit of a shorter chapter to introduce the NY scene. Nothing much happened, but sometimes it's the little moments that shape a story. This is a Jonathan and Clary story, but there is probably going to be some sort of Clary and Jace romance in the near future. I have a few ideas of where I would like the story to go, but I haven't 100% made a decision yet. I guess I'll write and see what happens. Until next time.
