Hey, guys! Just a quick heads up that I'm not sure if there will be two updates for every story next month, like there has been for the past couple months, we'll just see how it goes. Working a lot at the moment and my husband and I are doing renovations on our home and just general busy life stuff, so don't have a lot of free time right now x
"Stop...Stop!" Simon swatted at Clary's hands as they lifted to tug at her hair for the umpteenth time in the past hour. "Fucking hell, I'm not good at this sort of shit."
"You're doing a great job, Si," Clary rolled her eyes. "Super comforting." Simon narrowed his eyes at her, hearing the obvious sarcasm, and he flopped back onto her bed.
"Well, you're the one that's been avoiding him for so long that it's worked up to be some big ass climax now," he mumbled and Clary could barely stop herself from snapping her teeth at the warlock.
"Don't say climax," she growled and Simon snorted.
"Don't be immature," he grinned. "I mean, I don't think a climax would hurt anyone here, if I'm being honest. I mean, you're clearly tense and Raphael isn't here to help you with that, and I bet that Jace would be completely into it, from everything I've heard about him from you and your mum. He sounds as though he's completely head over heels for you—I mean, he knew that things had been getting worse for you and he flew all the way to New York just to come and get you."
"Some people would call that possessive," Clary arched an eyebrow, her voice low.
"Some people would call that romantic," Simon countered and Clary sighed as she moved to pull on a pair of ankle boots. It was just after nine, and even though Clary and Jace hadn't set a time that they were going to meet that morning, she had sort of thought that it would be best to go over early on. Her exact words to Simon and Jocelyn last night before she had gone to bed had been to 'get it over with' although she wasn't sure that was exactly how she felt.
A part of her even felt excited, although that was only a very small part, something that she wasn't even admitting to herself right now, because Jace and his pack and the fact they were mates was something that she had kept locked away and forced back for so long now, and the reality that it was all so close and possibly within her grasp was all just a little bit too much for her to deal with. So she didn't let herself think about that too much, just trying to think about what she was going to be dealing with right now, taking in a deep breath as she straightened back up again.
"Okay?" She asked as she looked back over at Simon, glancing down at what she was wearing. It was simple, a grey pair of jeans, a light purple shirt with a grey cardigan and a dark pair of ankle boots. Simon gave her a thumbs up and she rolled her eyes. "You're very helpful."
"I'm not...Good with clothes and shit, you know that," he shrugged a shoulder.
"You're a terrible gay best friend," she retorted.
"That's a stereotype that I refuse to play into," Simon sung out as he sat up on her bed and swung his legs over the side. "Besides, I've been attracted to woman before. Maybe I will be again. Sexuality is a spectrum, not a box to conform to." Clary arched her eyebrows at him, wondering if this was going to turn into a lecture, but he seemed happy to leave it there, which was good, because they had had many good conversations about sexuality and third wave feminism and toxic masculinity over a few drinks, but she really just didn't have the mental capacity for that right now. "You look good, you will be fine, just breathe and...Remember he already loves you," he grinned and shrugged a shoulder. "You're mates, so it doesn't really matter what you do, he's always gonna love you." But instead of reassuring her, like he obviously intended, Clary winced and looked down at the toes of her boots, and Simon quickly got off the bed. "I—didn't mean it like that..."
"I know, Si," Clary mumbled. "It's just...Things haven't exactly been the easiest between us. I haven't been the easiest. And I know he's stuck with me, literally can't have this kind of bond with anyone else, so...It's gotta suck to be him." Simon cringed at how his words had come off and he rested his hands on her shoulders, giving them a squeeze.
"Clary," he said quietly. "You dealt with a lot when you were younger. He knows that you went through a lot with your parents, with your dad, and he seems to have been pretty understanding up until this point. You just need...Be honest with him. Talk to him." Clary raised her head and met his eyes, and then gave him a small smile.
"You're wrong about what you said before," she told him as she leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek. "You are pretty good at this kind of shit."
Jace had sent her a text late last night, that had woken Clary up with the vibrations on her bedside table grating her sensitive hearing, and all it had given was an address and simple directions. It was the address for his pack home, which she did actually know, because she had asked her mother about it a few years ago when she had still been studying at college and had been visiting through one of the holidays. She had never actually gone to the address, but she had written it down on a piece of note paper, and folded it up and it was still tucked into one of her favourite books in her bookshelves in her bedroom at Luke and Jocelyn's. He had said to turn off the main driveway at the first right drive, and just keep driving along the path until he reached a clearing where an old barn house was.
The sun was shining and there were no clouds in the sky, and the closer Clary got to Jace, the more relaxed she felt. Even that anxious knot in her stomach that had been there ever since she and Jace had gone their separate ways on the beach yesterday had begun to relax. Jace was about forty-five minutes from where Luke's place was in Del Mar, on the other side of Oceanside, and she turned the radio up as she drove, winding down her windows and letting in the fresh air and the clean, crisp scents that she didn't have access to in the middle of New York.
She also liked being behind the wheel of a car again, something that she didn't really get to do in New York, other than when she would drive Simon or Raphael's cars.
Clary swallowed hard as she got to the driveway of Jace's place, slowing down her mothers car and turning into the driveway, which was all mud and stone, and she pursed her lips together as she drove up the drive. There were tall trees on either side of the drive, beautiful and leafy and she had to slam on the brakes when she caught a glimpse of a break in the trees to signal a more narrow driveway, given the branches practically hid the gap. She turned down the drive and kept going. It didn't take long until the trees broke and she was in a grassy clearing, and there was a barn house with all it's windows and doors open and the Camaro that Jace had been driving the other day was parked up alongside the wooden deck that looked half finished by the sliding doors. Clary pulled up next to the car and got out of her car, taking a moment to breathe and listen.
She could smell Jace, very strongly, all around her, in the trees and the grass and coming from car and the house, and there were other scents as well. He could smell the girl from the beach, who had been with Jace, and the two who had come to to her apartment and taken the flight back with them, and others, who were clearly Jace's pack. She couldn't hear him inside though, and she tilted her head to the side as she glanced around, looking into the trees, trying to hear anything.
And then she did.
There were the sounds of two people running through the woods around her, and it sounded as though they were getting closer. One of them was clearly faster and lighter on their feet, and the other seemed to be younger and not as nimble, because they created a lot more noise, and Clary smiled as she turned her body in the direction of the sound as the two people got closer to the edge of the woods, closer to the clearing, and then they broke through the treeline, Jace first and then someone else behind him, laughing as they tried to reach out and grab Jace. Jace laughed and just darted out of the way, continuing to run toward the house, eyes a little narrow as he shifted his direction just a bit so that he was heading toward Clary.
"Shit!" Clary squeaked out with a laugh as she ducked to the side as Jace barely slowed down in time to stop beside her, and then the younger boy joined them, unable to stop at all, and Jace reached out a strong arm and banded it around him, managing to stop him and pulling him in close, steadying him on his feet. The whole thing was surprising, but not unwelcome, and the knot in her stomach loosened a little bit more, the nervous tension in her shoulders not as tight.
"Clary, right?!" The kid blurted out as he looked up at Clary, his floppy fringe a little matted and stuck to his forehead, while Jace barely looked as though he had broken a sweat.
"Yeah," Clary smiled at him. "Yeah, I am."
"I'm Max, Alec and Izzy's brother," he announced, still leaning in close to Jace, clearly very comfortable with his Alpha.
"Sorry, I didn't know what time you were coming over this morning," Jace began. "And I missed seeing Max last night—"
"So he called and promised that he would take me out for a run today, since I have a free first period at school," Max concluded, still grinning, looking adorable and ruffled and Clary still couldn't stop herself from smiling back. Things were quiet for a moment before Jace's hand shifted from around Max to ruffle at his hair and then drop it down to his side.
"Alright, I'll get you some water, and then you head up to the house to get your car and go to school, okay?" Jace said, giving Max a pointed look, and Max's grin faltered a little at that. Clary wasn't sure if it was because Jace was telling him that he needed to go back to school or if it was because he was being told to leave and give them some time alone. But either way, he was still leaning against Jace's side as the three of them turned and began walking up to the house, taking the few wooden steps up onto the deck and then stepping into the house. Clary couldn't help but glance around as she stepped in, and she was surprised by how empty the place was, the fact that it really was just the shell of a house. They went into the kitchen, where it was practically empty except for a bench and a sink still in one corner, and a fridge that was plugged in. Jace moved away from Max and walked over to the fridge, opening it up.
Clary tilted her head to the side as she looked over at the teenager with flushed cheeks, whose eyes were flicking between Clary and Jace with great interest. Jace didn't look too surprised, although he rolled his eyes and there was a small smile on his mouth as he picked up a bottle of water and handed it over to the teenager, closing the gap between them again.
"Max," he said, voice bordering just a little on the edge of stern. "Go up to the house now, okay?" Max looked like he really wanted to stay, but he didn't say anything, he just took the bottle of water and leaned against Jace for a moment, in a subtle way to seek warmth from his Alpha, before grinning over at Clary.
"It was nice to meet you, Clary," he said cheerfully before practically skipping out of the building. Jace looked back at Clary with a slightly apologetic expression but Clary couldn't help but smile, feeling a lot less apprehensive since seeing the small exchange. "Bye!" Max called over his shoulder as he headed back out of the house, leaving just Clary and Jace behind in the kitchen. Clary watched him go before looking back, sucking in the corner of her lower lip as she met Jace's eyes.
He looked completely fresh faced, wearing a pair of sweatpants and and a loose grey shirt, and his scent was coming off him in waves, not covered up by any cologne or deodorant, emphasized by the fact that he had been running and his blood was pumping a little faster through his veins.
"So..." Jace began slowly and Clary was relieved when she detected just the slightest tremor in his voice, giving away that he was just as nervous as she was.
"So..." she returned with a tight smile before looking down. They fell quiet again and when Clary looked around, searching for something to say. "How long have you been working on this place?" Jace turned and took a few steps through to the area that was probably meant to be the dining room, his fingers trailing over a door that was balanced over two saw benches that he had been sanding down, and shrugged a shoulder.
"I think a couple of years?" He replied idly. "I mean, this place has been here for years—this property was my mothers families, before she and my father got together, and she moved to be with him. But she was the only one left in her family so the property was left to her, and we would come out here a lot when I was younger, and she would bring out Alec and Izzy as well, we would all play around here, at the main house and at this one as well. I moved out here a couple of years ago, although I was only here part time, really, because I still spent a lot of time at my dads place since he was...Still my Alpha," Jace's voice sounded smaller and he shrugged a shoulder, and Clary could smell the sadness in the air.
She had met Stephen a couple of times, the first being the afternoon that Jace had killed her father, and the others had all been brief and she really hadn't been interested in talking to him.
He'd died just over thirteen months ago.
It would be...Thirteen months and five days now.
Because when he had died, Jace had inherited the Alpha spark, and their bond had suffered more, since that was when an Alpha needed his mate the most. Clary had been dealing with the pain of being separated from her mate for years, and while it meant that sometimes she couldn't sleep and sometimes she had bouts of nausea, but she managed her pain and after meeting Simon, he had helped her a lot. But once Jace had become an Alpha, that was when things had gotten so much worse.
"I'm sorry...About what happened," Clary said softly, not reaching out and touching Jace, like she would have with another werewolf that she was close to. As werewolves they were immune to a lot of illnesses and physical harm. They couldn't catch a cold or an STD and when they were hurt, their bones could knit themselves back together within a day and their skin could close up with an hour or so. But there were some diseases that they could develop, and they presented differently because werewolves anatomy was different from humans.
Luke had called Clary and told her what had happened, his voice soft and empathetic as he had explained the situation over the phone. Stephen had been sick for a while, apparently, over a year, and had been keeping it from nearly everyone, although his pack had been picking up on things, especially Jace. The more time that had gone on, the more the pack had known that something was wrong, because they could smell the sickness on his body, but they had sought treatment in secret, not wanting to expose the weakness of their pack. He had frontotemporal dementia, which humans could live with for years, sometimes, but it had been aggressive with Stephen, and his body had begun shutting down. Luke had explained that Stephen had apparently been slipping and getting worse; acting rash, lashing out, forgetting things—this was all what Jace had told Stephen only recently, because he was the closest Alpha living near to them. Jace hadn't been sure what he was going to do, because a werewolf as powerful as his father couldn't just be left to his own devices, and apparently they had had healers and warlocks examine him and there was no way to heal him.
Clary hadn't known what to do with the information when Luke had called her, and she had wondered if she should reach out to Jace. She'd gotten stupidly drunk on some wolfsbane alcohol that Simon had in stock, and had passed out for nearly twenty-four hours, and then when she had woken up, she had missed calls from Luke and her mother, even from Catarina, who hated using modern technology. When she had called them back, she found out that Stephen had committed suicide, overdosing on a pure silver concoction, probably to take the choice out of his sons hands—so that he didn't need to be the one to kill him and diffuse the threat.
"Did you want to run?" Jace asked after clearing his throat. Clary glanced down at what she was wearing, which wasn't really something she would usually run in. Jace realized what she was thinking and he looked toward another door. "There'll be some clothes in there from one of the girls, and maybe some shoes?" Clary nodded, the idea of a run appealing, even if she was going to be in someone elses clothes and wrapped in their scent.
"Yeah," Clary nodded, giving him a small smile, thinking that maybe it would be easier to talk once she had gotten rid of the pent up energy. "Yeah, okay."
Songs that I recommend are Die A Little by Yungblud, Teeth by 5SOS, Love Myself by Olivia O'Brien and Middle Finger by Bohnes, all of which have just been on repeat for the past week or so. Also, my husband is completely obsessed with Motivation by Normani and Slide Away by Miley Cyrus, so I've been hearing those a lot recently as well. Lol.
I've been fighting this cold/flu/virus things for moooonths now, and I took a day off work coz it hit hard and I was feeling sorry for myself and I just spent it watching fluffy movies that make me happy. Haha. Footloose, the original one, of course, even though I don't mind the new one. A Cinderella Story, Ever After, Raise Your Voice, Centre Stage: Turn It Up, What A Girl Wants, The Prince & Me, 13 Going On 30 and High School Musical so those are my recommendations!
Okay, so questions—how many of you guys are planning on getting Disney+? Haha. It's just been announced that it will be getting released in New Zealand, which we were worried it wouldn't be because so many streaming services aren't. But it's gonna be here in November and me and my partner are psyched! Haha.
Is everyone else heartbroken about the Sony/Marvel breakdown? Honestly, my heart goes out to Tom Holland the most, because he has done such an incredible job. There's always going to be a special place in my heart for the OG Spiderman, but there's just something about Tom's version, he was fucking amazing and had so much heart, and I'm just so upset that there isn't going to be more of him in this verse. He seemed so heart broken at D23. Poor baby :(
Last one! Anyone watch performances at the VMAs? I honestly kind of think the VMAs/Oscars/The Golden Globes yadda yadda yadda are pretty bullshit, pretty biased, so I don't pay too much attention to the nominations and the winners, but I live for the outfits and the, like, two or three performances from artists I like. Lizzo and Missy Elliott were fucking amazing, and I screamed when Alyson Stoner came out on stage. Miley Cyrus' performance was totally heart breaking, so fucking good. And Halsey and Jonathan Van Ness were my stand out outfits! Oh also—Joe and Nick Jonas and Sophie Turner's reactions to Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes not kissing in their set was fucking hilarious. Let's face it, I think anything involving Sophie is hilarious—did you guys see her pasta related Instagram story? Ahahahaha. She's amazing.
Drop a review, let me know what you think, love you lots x