A/N: Hello, my dears. It has been forever, at least it's felt like it, since my last update so I don't wanna keep this too long. I'm sorry for my absence, but you know from previous ANs that I was struggling to write through writer's block. Along with being busy, I got to the point where I really had to motivate myself, and write for myself again. If I'm gonna be honest, I don't know if my updates will be constant, but I'm happy just to be writing again. I've missed writing fluidly and daydreaming about writing and just being invested in stories. I would never abandon this story, and I'm glad to have written this. I hope you like it!
"Alright," Simon said, grabbing a chip from one of three bags opened on the counter. He grabbed one from every bag and stuffed in his mouth, and Clary stared at him with furrowed eyebrows, standing across from him. "So we all head home and meet where again?"
"They have a bike rental place on 110th in South Street Seaport," Clary mumbled, snatching the bags and proceeding to clean up while he shot her a glare.
"But what is it called?"
"It is literally called Brooklyn Bridge Sightseeing Bike Rentals and Tours," she told him, and he raised his eyebrows.
"Enough," Isabelle muttered, jumping off of the stool. "You two have been so sassy to each other today."
Simon pointed. "Clarissa started it."
"I saw you smack her with a pillow." Isabelle raised an eyebrow at him, and Simon turned to see Clary grinning. He groaned and the couple left the apartment, right behind Magnus, Alec, and Dylan.
The door closed and Jonathan sighed, turning forward. "Finally, some peace and quiet." He leaned on his elbows, sitting between Mari and Dallas.
"Peace and quiet? You're the rowdiest one of them all." Clary wiped her hands after washing a dish and made her way to her room.
"She is sassy today," Jonathan whispered, and Jace smirked.
"Jace, I called Raphael and Bat! They're heading over with clothes and are going with us to the bridge!" she yelled from her room, and his head snapped up.
"You asked Raphael and Bat to bring me clothes?" he responded. "They only wear suits and sweatpants. What kind of clothes could they possibly bring me? And I have clothes! And why are they coming?!"
He began to walk towards her room, but she could clearly be heard saying, "I'm not risking the chance to be stuck on a big ass bridge because your famousness!"
"Oh, my famousness? You've been featured on Perez on your own, I might add. Maybe you should stop being so famous. Maybe you should stop being so fashionable, that's what you should stop. You and Izzy are always called fashionable, and my headlines always call me promiscuous or downright slutty."
"Jace. You are slutty."
Their voices disappeared when he closed the door and Jon turned to face Mari, who sat on his right. She had her lips pursed to suppress a laugh.
"I wasn't aware Clary was part of a married couple," she said, and Jon's eyes got wide.
"Married? Where did you read this? Are they married? Did she tell you? She met you today and she already told you and not me? When could they have gotten married? Like there's any time to be getting married—" He stopped himself when Mari now scrunched her nose to hold back her laugh. "Oh. You are implying they act like a married couple."
"Yes."
Jonathan sat forward. "Yes. Yes, they do."
The three looked to their right when they heard a bang against the door. Jonathan stood up as the doorknob slowly turned, and he craned his head to see who was coming in. He rushed over to the door when Jocelyn appeared holding two boxes in her hands, towering over the top of her head. He grabbed them from her, and she let out a breath.
"Those stairs are absolute hell, let me tell you," she told him, and then finally noticed Mari and Dallas sitting at the counter. They stood up immediately. "Oh, sorry. I didn't realize we had company." She smiled, holding out a hand to them. "I'm Jocelyn. Jonathan and Clary's mother."
Mari glanced at Jonathan, and he stood up straight. "Mum, this is Mari and her brother Dallas."
"Mari and Dallas." She shook their hands when they stuck them out. "I remember the kids telling me you were coming." She turned a little, and then her eyes got wide. "Ohhh, Mari and Dallas." She grinned up at Jonathan, and he raised an eyebrow. "What a wonderful day for you to come." She took a box and turned to Mari. "These are baby pictures and such. I brought them up for Jace. Is he here?" And, with that, Jocelyn walked towards the couch and motioned Mari to come to her.
Mari smirked at Jonathan with excited eyes and walked over.
"So, tell me," Isabelle said, stuffing her hands into her jacket pockets, "what is your deal?"
Dylan looked at Simon with wide eyes and confusion.
Simon looked over him to raise an eyebrow at Isabelle. "What a way to talk to someone we've known for almost half our lives, Isabelle."
Isabelle shrugged. "Which is why I can ask so blatantly."
"Rudely. The word is rudely, Isabelle," Simon mumbled, but kept his mouth shut as the only sound they heard was city traffic and the wind blowing past them.
"I have no deal, Izzy." Dylan looked at her, making direct eye contact.
She narrowed her eyes. "You mean you're not in love with Clary anymore and you aren't going to mess with her and Jace?" Dylan paused for a second, and she pointed. "See!"
"Isabelle!" Simon hissed.
Dylan put a finger in the air. "I will always love Clary, and loving her includes seeing how happy she is with Jace and letting it be."
"Are you in love with Jace? That's the real question," Simon asked, and the two looked over at him and ignored him, promptly continuing their conversation.
"Good. Because she is happy, you know. Despite how miserable this situation makes her." Isabelle whispered the last part under her breath.
Dylan rolled his eyes. "You can stop being a mama bear, Isabelle. I'm strictly here to help Clary out. And, really, who can hold on when you're up against best friends who shared cribs and were destined to be together?"
"Mmkay, good." She faced forward. "Because I love your presence with us and I never want you to leave."
Dylan looked over at her, smirking, and then put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in as she laughed.
"Well, your company is a lot better than Derek."
Simon made a noise that sounded like yechk and spoke up, saying, "Well then if that's the case, stay forever."
Isabelle leaned up and whispered to Dylan, "Before I saw her with Jace, I thought it was you she would end up with." Dylan looked down at her in surprise. "I'm sorry," she apologized quickly, not knowing if this caused him any pain.
"No, it's okay." He smiled a little and looked forward, still keeping his head leaned on hers. "So did I."
"Ooo," Clary said, grabbing a picture from inside the photo album. She waved in front of Jon and Mari. "Attractive."
Jon narrowed his eyes at his sister and snatched the picture of him as a child, naked in the bathtub, his arms raised in the air.
"Why did you dig these up again, Mother?" Jon asked when his mom took the picture from him when he made an action to rip it.
She put it back into the sleeve. "I told Jace I would show him some pictures from the years he wasn't with us."
Jon glanced at Clary, and she returned it. He knew they were both thinking; what a great way to describe our forced absence.
Jace turned around from the stool on the kitchen counter. "And a great idea it was." He waved a picture of young Clary with pigtails, a brace-faced grin, and a yellow and green striped shirt. "Was this the age you were booking venues?" He looked back at the picture. "How could anyone take you seriously? Were they afraid you would wrap your curls around their neck?"
Jace and Clary stared at each other after he stopped smiling and she lunged at him, making him girly-scream obnoxiously.
"As much as we would all like to reminisce on our ugliest times," Clary said, taking the photo album from Jace and hitting him lightly on the top of his head, "we've got a bridge to bike."
"I wouldn't call this your ugliest time," Mari spoke up, holding up a picture of Jace, Clary, and Jonathan on the stage, in huge leather jackets that reached their ankles—or, in Clary's case, the floor. They all wore sunglasses and grinned from ear to ear.
"Oh, that wasn't." Clary squinted at the picture. "Jonathan was still cute then, but he became odd looking very quickly."
Jonathan stared blankly at her. "Thank you for that, Clarissa." He stood up. "But the rudest sister in all the lands is correct. We've got a bridge to bike. If you'll excuse us, mother. Maybe you can embarrass us more tonight as we decorate the tree Clarissa is, of course, going to make us put up tonight."
Clary put a chip in her mouth and chomped loudly. "Damn straight."
Jocelyn smiled. "Of course. Any moment is okay for embarrassing my children." She stood up as Dallas and Mari did. "Nice meeting you, Mari." She inclined her head warmly at her and then shook Dallas's hands as she said, "Nice meeting you as well, Dallas." She walked towards the doors.
"Wait, what about these?" Jonathan asked, and Jocelyn looked over her shoulder briefly.
"Oh, that's quite alright. There's many more albums to flip through later on," Jocelyn told him simply, and left.
Clary pursed her lips, and Jace pulled his leather jacket on as he announced clearly, "Jocelyn—forever the epitome of effortless grace and the queen of odd forms of cruelty."
After biking on the bridge, where Simon yelled that maybe biking on the Brooklyn bridge surrounded by all this water in cold temperatures wasn't the best idea and everyone proceeded to ignore him, the group headed back to the Morgenstern residence once the sun began to set.
Isabelle watched Clary during the whole trip, because she was uncharacteristically displaying public affection to Jace. It made her queasy, because she knew something had to be wrong.
She linked arms with Clary as they walked through the streets, and she told Jace to beat it. He did so with wide eyes and fell into step with Dylan and Simon, while she and Clary slowed down to be a little bit behind the group.
"What's going on with you?" Isabelle asked, and Clary looked up at her in confusion at what was going on. "And don't be all doe-eyed and bushy-tailed about the question. Something is obviously wrong. I've never seen you kiss someone's forehead so much. It was gross. Like you were Jace's grandmother. How did you even get him to get down that much to even kiss his forehead so many times? And why his forehead? Can't you make out with him like a normal human being?"
"No."
"No, what?"
"No, I can't make-out with him like a normal human being."
"Of all the questions, that's the one you decided to answer?"
"Yes. It was the only one I could answer amongst the merh-merh-merh," Clary mocked, and Isabelle glared.
"Spill, Clarissa. Are you okay? Because you sure as hell are not acting like it." Isabelle held her arm tighter, and Clary felt like she was about to lose circulation, and that answering would be her only way out.
Clary dragged her left hand down her face. "No. I mean, I don't think I am. How do you act when your boyfriend is about to leave? Do you just pretend you aren't going to be plane rides away? I mean, really. What do you do?"
"You do long distance. Is that not obvious?"
"Did I not break up with Dylan the moment we found out he was moving?" Clary asked, and the two stood in silence. "See."
"Okay. Just because Jace crashed your friendship to ruins last time you were apart—"
"Thank you for the painfully vivid description of the memory."
"—does not mean that it will happen again. You two are adults in an adult relationship."
Clary's forehead scrunched. "The more you say adult, the more I don't believe you."
Isabelle rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to convince all of us, really." She sighed. "I thought you were okay."
"Then why do I feel like I should be doing something more? Why do I feel like I should assume we won't be okay and take all the precautions? Why do I feel okay with him leaving?" Clary stopped walking and Isabelle did too. "Is that naive? I mean, I know it will be hard, and it will suck, but is it naive to know we will be okay?"
Isabelle shook her head and laughed a little. "No. It's not naive. I think it's just real."
"Really?"
She nodded. "Really." She paused. "We just haven't been blessed with the comfort of relationship security. We aren't quite sure how it feels."
"Well, that's true."
Simon gave a nod towards Clary and Isabelle as he slid two large glasses of white wine towards Jace. "Give this to Clarissa and Isabelle before they go all 'evil Elf leaders' on us."
Jace stared down the middle of the glass. "This is a lot of wine."
"It's okay. It's part of tree decoration day to get them hammered. It's become tradition since Jocelyn first started it," Simon told him and grabbed beers and two cups of wine.
"Jocelyn," Jace whispered. "Why am I not surprised?" He picked up the cups and walked over to Isabelle and Clary, who were giving instructions to a wide-eyed Dylan. "Ladies."
They looked up at him, took the cups and in unison, and said, "Thanks."
Jace stared at his empty hands for a moment. "Well. I'll go put on the music."
They ignored him when he walked away and made his way to the CD collection. He wasn't surprised that the Christmas CDs were grouped together.
Jocelyn smirked when the music began to play. She always enjoyed when her kids put up the tree on the day after Thanksgiving. And, with more people to spend the night with, she enjoyed it even more.
Jonathan held up a picture and cringed. "Are we not done doing this?"
"We will never be done doing this," Mari replied, flipping through a photo album.
He groaned, and Jocelyn let out a laugh.
"Why don't you start helping with the tree before Clary starts yelling and Isabelle starts throwing things at you boys?" Jocelyn asked him, and Jonathan stood up.
"Yeah, don't want a repeat of last year," he mumbled and walked away.
"The girls did that last year?" Mari asked, looking up.
Jocelyn flipped a page when she said, "It happens every year, really." She looked up. "I'll be a little upset if it doesn't happen to someone tonight."
Mari laughed, and Jocelyn smiled.
"I love your little family."
Jocelyn shrugged. "They're a bit mad, but absolutely filled with love." Mari nodded and looked down. "I wanted to thank you actually."
In surprise, Mari let the photo album drop from her fingertips, and she leaned to pick it up. "Thank me?"
"Yes." Jocelyn looked over at Jon and back at her. "For helping him. Thank you for...helping him through this." She looked down a moment and then back up at Mari. "He needs all the support he can get, and even though his sister and our little family have an infinite amount of it, he can always use a bit more." She inclined her head. "Thank you, Mari."
Speechless for a couple moments, she stared at her hands. "Helping him helps me too. I...it's an honor that he's allowing me to help him in the first place." Jocelyn smiled a little.
"Never tell him that it's an honor to be anything with him. It'll go straight to his head."
Mari laughed and nodded. "Noted."
Looking around, Jace searched for a conversation to join. Dylan was helping the girls, along with Jonathan now, and Jace wasn't sure he wanted to get caught up in the tree planning. Alec and Magnus were whispering to each other, so he wanted to leave them alone. So he smiled as he approached Dallas and Simon.
He sat down beside Dallas, who gave him a friendly smile, while Simon glared. Jace's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he listened in. He looked in-between them and exclaimed, "Rap!" Dallas jumped a little in surprise. "You two are talking about rap. Can I join? I can add in a little about British—"
"No." Simon stared at him.
Jace stared back at him, but his expression didn't change. "You're mean, Simon Lewis."
He stood up and plopped down beside Magnus, not caring anymore if he was interrupting them.
"Jace," Alec called out his name, and he lazily looked over. "I think we need to do a song with you at MSG."
Jace sat up now, intrigued. "That would be amazing."
Magnus closed his eyes, imagining it. "Yeah, I mean, if Jace and The Elite Four don't do a song together, did tour really happen?"
"Nope," Alec responded and grinned.
"Yeah, we need to!" Jace took a swig of his beer. "I mean, what songs could we even—"
He flinched when a plastic Christmas ornament hit him in the chest. He saw Alec rub the back of his head.
Magnus leaned towards Jace and smiled a little. "Glitter." He pointed at Jace's black shirt. "Beautiful."
Jace looked up just in time to see an ornament hit Simon in the face with enough force that it knocked his glasses askew.
"Isabelle!" Simon yelled, and she smiled in return.
"Let's start!" Clary instructed, snapping her fingers.
Jocelyn leaned in towards Mari and whispered, "Tradition!"
Clary and Simon took a couple steps away from the tree and tilted their heads.
"This may be the quickest we've ever finished the tree," Simon pointed out.
"Everyone was very efficient," Clary added.
"That, and Dylan and Jace kind of took over and became the evil elves."
The two looked over to see Jace slap Isabelle's hand as she tried to re-arrange an ornament, and her glaring up at him in response.
Clary and Simon covered their mouths to hold back a laugh. Simon nudged Clary and she looked up at him to see him staring at Jace.
"I'll miss him around," he whispered, and Clary gulped.
She started to clean up and put things in boxes. Simon followed her lead.
"He'll be back," Simon reassured her.
"I know."
"And it'll be for a while."
She raised her eyebrow now. "Two weeks or so isn't really a while, Simon."
He moved stuff in the box so she could carefully put something in. "Well, he has the couple weeks in Europe for tour, but then he will be here."
"And then he will be in London, and visiting here, and then back in London."
"We can visit London."
Clary smiled a little at that. "Yeah. That would be really nice."
"It'll probably be to help him anyway," he mumbled, and she looked up.
"Help him what?"
"Move," Simon said with a scoff. "Obviously. Not that Jace has a lot of stuff, but—"
Clary put a hand on Simon's hand to get him to stop moving and look up at her. He did so, and she was staring at him, trying to put together what he was making very obvious.
"Move where, Simon?"
Simon looked back at her with wide eyes. When hers got just a round, he said, loud and clear, "Fuck."
She opened her mouth, but it promptly shut when she heard her phone ring. She made a face, knowing that she had to answer it, just in case it was important, and she got up as Simon went to lower the volume of the music—and to run away from the conversation completely.
She shot him a dirty look, knowing what he was doing.
She answered the call from a number that wasn't in her contacts and used her business voice when she said, "Hello?"
"Hi, is this Clarissa Morgenstern?" A woman's friendly voice was on the other end, and Clary made her way into her room.
She closed the door. "Sorry about the noise, but yes, I'm Clarissa."
"I'm Sophia! I'm calling from Z100." When Sophia was met with silence, she continued, "Jordan Kyle told us that he would have informed you by this time."
"Oh, one second," Clary told her as she checked her messages. Z100 is calling you! Xo. Clary made a face, hoping it was Maia who texted her and that Jordan didn't just xo her. "Just saw it! Sorry about that, but…"
"We're calling to ask about your Jones Beach show tomorrow," Sophia began to explain. "We've just such an increase in request for your music and just an interest in getting you here for an interview, but we know it's the holidays and you've all got a hectic schedule along with Jace, and we're booked for every morning until next year, so we were wondering if there was any way we could do this interview before your show at Jones Beach tomorrow?"
Clary was silent from shock and the surrealness of the conversation as she tried to respond as calmly as possible, "That would be absolutely amazing. We would love that incredible opportunity."
"Great! And we also wanted to ask if we could follow you around for a live cam—"
"What?! Are you serious?" Clary closed her eyes in defeat and whispered, "Sorry."
Sophia giggled. "I'm guessing the outburst was from excitement rather than anger?"
"Definitely was."
"So I can also take that as a yes? We know it's extremely last minute, but we just came up with the idea today, and Jordan Kyle said it would be okay—"
"Definitely a yes. If you guys showed up yesterday and asked us then, it would still be a definite yes, so please don't worry about that."
Clary could hear Sophia's smile when she said, "Amazing. We'll see you tomorrow. I'll be there with a team and Elvis Duran."
"Elvis Duran!" Clary touched her nose and shook her head. "I'm sorry again."
Sophia laughed in return this time. "Can't wait to meet you, Clarissa Morgenstern. Thank you so much."
"Same to you, Sophia. Thank you."
The two said their goodbyes, and Sophia promptly hung up. Clary threw her phone on the bed and stood there in disbelief. She stared out her window, shaking her head, her hand covering her mouth, overwhelmed with the fact that they were going to have an interview with Z100 along with a live cam feature on The Elite Four.
Her heart was beating fast, a grin on her face. Her smile involuntarily fell, remembering what she found before she got the call.
Jace was moving.
A/N: I know a lot of people must be screaming at Clary over her smile falling but she will explain herself and it will be just like our DLF Clary. I hope you guys liked this chapter and all the family moments it had in it. I'm missing this story honestly and the dynamic between all the characters.
I've really missed you guys and I sincerely hope you are all doing well :) I hope whoever is in school is doing well and I hope everyone is enjoying the start of the holidays because I definitely have. Currently listening to Christmas music, haha.
I'd love to hear how you guys are doing or just what you thought of this chapter. Please leave some reviews & feedback :)
Thank you to everyone who is bearing through my absences these days. You guys are amazing for continuing to be interested in this story and the other ones I've got going on. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, alerted and just read this story!
Shout out to infamousfanfic, brightdarknessx, Cheery Tropay Venturi, Guest, Cfire27, bookaddict223, clarissa adele herondale, rippingbutterflywings, Guest, Dramione-Fan 17, LOVERGIRL, Luckybrat452-494, Islandgirl4evR, Taty98, bookobsessedpooj, cheshire15, Guest, Minime460, Guest, Guest, Guest, laurene32, and Guest! You are too wonderful. Thank you for your reviews, and just letting me know what you think or enjoying it. Thank you. Biggest hugs to all of you. I'll be replying soon :)
Shout out to rippingbutterflywings for being an amazing beta and friend. Thank you for believing in my ability to write something, anything, when I wasn't sure of it myself. You're thee best asshole niece, and I'll always be here to be gigil for you.
Shout out to DeathCabForMari for rooting for this story constantly. For helping me by talking through it and examining the characters along with me. Thank you for saying that no one could write this prompt like I can because it truly made me smile and I was honored to see that you thought so. Thank you for being a lovely friend, real life Mari.
Shout out to Islandgirl4evR and brightdarknessx for checking up on me. It sincerely meant everything to me and you two are some of the best. You two are two of the ones I've missed.
Guest: It really made me smile that you mentioned that the family/friend chapters made them feel more real. I loved that so much. Just because I always want the characters to be relatable, even if their situations aren't relatable in some ways. Thank you for that and thank you for such a lovely review! I hope you liked their family dynamic in this chapter too :)
cfire27: Thank you for your review! I'm glad you think so, I enjoy writing these type of chapters a lot!
Guest (KB): I love writing the moments when Jace feels like he fits into their family. I feel like his character deserves that and that he really found it in them. Thank you for mentioning that in your review and for leaving a review! Also, I had a really wonderful trip. I miss it often. Thank you so much for asking :)
LOVERGIRL: So glad you liked it! Thank you for the review!
Guest: Happy to see that you thought so :) thank you for the review!
Guest: Thank you for your review! Love that you love it, and hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Guest: Thank you for your review and kind words! So glad you love it the story and the way it is written :) hope you like this update!
Guest: So happy to see that you love the story! Thank you for your review!
Guest: Thank you for your review! The update did take a while but I hope you like it and love it just as much!