A/N: Helloo, I planned to have much more happen in this chapter but the conversations in it were important to rush or just gloss over. Soo, I hope you like it! Other A/N and thank you's at the bottom :)
After Clary walked out of her room, screamed out the news she just got, and the group screamed so loud that the wine in the glasses shook, they spent an hour wondering how it would be like, what they would talk about, and how Clary got excited about Elvis Duran. When the feeling started to die down and Luke joined them for the calmer part of the night that didn't include decorating or extreme excitement, they sat down and talked about how things had changed. They spoke about what they were thankful for and what they would be doing for Christmas since they planned to be together at one more point during the holiday season. And when it got past one in the morning, Jocelyn told them they all had a big day and to start heading to sleep. She offered sleeping bags but they all agreed to sleep in their own residences so they could get good rest for their big day before the actual big day at MSG.
Isabelle hugged Clary from behind as Simon, Alec, and Magnus said their goodbyes. Clary hugged her arms, and Simon walked in front of her to sandwich her in the middle.
He leaned down and whispered. "Please don't tell Jace I told you."
Clary squeezed him one more time before she replied, "Oh, he'll know it was you."
Simon frowned when he let go, and the three directed their attention to Jace and Dylan, who were full on hugging, squeezing each other tightly.
Isabelle crossed her arms. "You know you two have punched each other in the face, right?"
The two let go of the hug and Jace told her, "It was a dark time then, Isabelle."
She rolled her eyes and stepped forward to give him a hug. He rubbed the top of her head to mess up her hair and she pulled away, pushing him a little.
"Get some sleep, Clarissa," Dylan said to Clary as he hugged her.
"Okay, beautiful people." Magnus walked into the middle of their group, Alec behind, and started hugging down the line. "I'll see you all tomorrow. Jace, get some sleep, because those eye bags you have are horrendous, and I'm just not sure I can cover them up with a concealer."
"I hate you." Jace grinned.
Magnus put a hand over his heart. "Just like when you were seventeen."
Jace rolled his eyes and led them to door, where he opened it for them.
"Rushing us out, you're rude," Isabelle said loud and clear before Jace closed the door.
Jace looked over at Dallas, who was on the couch, on his phone. "Are you sleeping here tonight?" He made a move towards the sleeping bag.
"I don't think so. My sister is talking to Jonathan on the roof," Dallas explained, and Jace stood up. He grinned.
"Oh, that's lovely. Wonderful things happen on the roof."
Clary scrunched her nose, and Dallas shook his head.
"No, no, no," Dallas mouthed, and Jace's eyes got wide, and he opened his mouth to speak, but Clary stopped him.
"Enough. Say no more. That's enough," she told him, and he frowned, nodded, and walked towards the bedroom. Clary waited until he was in the room and told Dallas to knock on her door if he needed anything, or if they were on the roof for longer than thirty minutes so she could go get her brother. Dallas chuckled and nodded, and Clary leaned her head against the door, closing her eyes after she shut it.
"Magical day, Clarissa," Jace said, looking through his stuff.
She opened her eyes now, and they landed on his. His smile dropped immediately from the shock of it. "Yes. It's also very magical that I found out that you're moving."
Jace's mouth opened, but he didn't say anything for a couple seconds. "Did Jordan and Maia tell you?"
Clary turned her head a little to the right, as if she didn't hear him correctly. "Jordan and Maia knew too?"
"Ah." Jace closed his eyes, shaking his head a little. "Simon."
"Okay, so did anybody else know that you were planning to move? I mean, do my parents know? Does Jonathan know?"
He opened his eyes, and his head fell forward a little. "No, no one else knows."
"And you're moving where exactly?"
He opened his eyes and stared at her a moment. "Here, obviously." Clary exhaled and closed hers. He stepped forward. "Wait, are you upset that I'm moving here?" She opened them and stared out the window. "It was...it was a surprise."
And, quickly, she looked enraged. "Oh, bullshit," she seethed.
He sat down on the bed. "Look, I don't understand why you're so upset right now."
Her hands flew up, and he leaned back a little from the action. "Jace, when were you going to tell me? Do you not think that's important news?"
He stood up. "But it's good important news."
"It's news nonetheless, and I don't know why you refuse to tell me the important things. Things that matter. You'll tell me exactly what you ate before we see each other, but you don't tell me this?" She took a deep breath to calm down. "You didn't tell me this, you didn't tell me about Jonathan, you didn't tell me why you cut off our friendship, Jace, you never tell me anything that means this much."
"I was going to tell you," he told her, sternly. "I was trying to find the right moment."
"But you had time to ask Simon, Jordan, and Maia?"
"This is a good thing. Why are you ruining it? Why do you always have to overthink it, even if it's good?"
She replied immediately with a voice louder than she intended, "Because you don't think about anything! Everything you do with us is impulsive, and you can't just spring things like this on me, Jace."
Jace stared at her for a moment and shook his head. "I'm moving here so we can work on that. I'm moving here so we can get better. I'm moving for you."
Her forehead creased before she whispered, "I don't want you moving here for me."
"What?" he asked in disbelief. "Why would you say that?"
"Because it's the truth." She moved to sit down on the chair in the corner of her room, right on top of clothes she stacked on it. "I heard that moving for someone can ruin your relationship and create bitterness."
"Where did you hear that?"
She peeked at him. "Larissa from The Carrie Diaries."
Jace sat back down and sighed. "Oh. At least your source is credible." They didn't say anything for a few seconds. "We aren't some television show couple, Clary. Our story is more bizarre than some show or movie." Clary smiled a little, as she stared at the floor.
"I don't want you to regret moving here for me. What about your life in London? Your home, your friends, your family—"
"You are my family, Clarissa." He interrupted her, his hands held together, his elbows on his knees as he stared the same spot in the floor that she had her eyes on. He glanced at her. "You are my home."
"Jace—"
"I spent eleven years feeling like something was missing, and when I saw you, that part of me came back. After being on this tour, and being with Jocelyn and Luke, I can't...I'd be an idiot to voluntarily leave it all."
Clary gulped. "What about your father?"
"It could do him some good to move here, too." Jace sat up now. "He's in need of a little family time." He made eye contact with her. "Is this all okay? Moving here." She nodded. "I know you're afraid, for the same reasons I've decided to ignore, but I can't leave this life, Clary. I've missed it too much." He smiled a little. "I'm moving here whether you like it or not, though."
She sighed, smiled, and shook her head. "Yeah, I figured." He stood up now, walked across the room to lean down, hold her face, and kiss her deeply before he made his way to his duffle bag. "Jace." He turned around to face her. "If this ends—"
"Clary."
"—if this ends, then you and I, we can't." He gulped. "As in you and me, Jace and Clary. We can't end, even if this ends. I wouldn't be able to handle it again." He nodded.
"Of course." She stuck out her pinky, and he walked over to wrap his around hers. "I promise."
They let go, and she whispered, "Good."
He looked away for a moment and then dug through his things. He pulled out a piece of paper. "I wanted to perform this at MSG, but I think it would be more fitting to perform 'Whisper' with you, since it's what started this madness in America, but—" He turned around and held out a folded paper to her.
She stood up and opened it up to find words and notes. "A song?" She looked up, amused. "When did you find the time to write a secret song?"
He shrugged slightly. "You and Jonathan sleep very soundly. I mean, very soundly. I was almost max volume by the time I was done with this." She let out a laugh. "I did this last night—or this morning, rather—after Thanksgiving. While I was thinking about my little secret."
"Little secret," she muttered under her breath.
"I don't need you to sing it with me. You can, if you want to, but you don't have to. I know it would be a lot to ask, with the show being in less than twenty-four hours, but I just need you to play it. It has to be you," he told her, looking at the paper, and then up at her.
She nodded, and he leaned down to kiss her. "I'm gonna go learn this," she said, against his lips.
He pulled away. "You never stop. It's mind-boggling."
"Go to sleep," she replied, sounding amused. "You have an important show tomorrow."
"Alright, Miss Elvis Duran," he mumbled, and she turned around to look at him, disgust on her face. "That sounds very odd and gross. I take it back."
"Goodnight. I won't be long."
And, with that, she closed the door, and the only illumination was the streetlight from Clary's room. He looked around her room and bit his bottom lip to restrain his grin.
After the door clicked, Clary walked towards the living room. She passed the tree, all lit up and decorated. She sat on the piano bench and stared at the tree to her left. She blinked while she inspected every inch of it—and it wasn't for any ornaments that may be out of place or to rearrange the lights. She loved the way she could see what section was done by each of her friends, either from memory as to who was standing where and doing what, or just by what they decided to put up. The Morgenstern family always kept their ornaments and usually never threw them away unless they broke, so they had a myriad of different types. The tree kept to the basic colors of red, gold, white, and green. There were ornaments of musical instruments, shapes of books, art supplies, Santas, reindeers, and a circle picture of Jocelyn, Jonathan, Clary, and Luke. Clary sat up straight when she saw two new pictures towards the top of the tree. She stood up to get a closer look and make sure it was what she thought it was.
One picture was the one that she saw that morning of her, Jace, and Jonathan wearing the leather jackets. It was simply cut in a clean circle, with a hole punched at the top, a red string looped into it. She touched it lightly and smiled. She was wondering what Jocelyn and Luke were doing at the table by themselves, and why they lingered around the tree after they all "inspected it" for the last time that night.
The other new picture on the tree was of them. Their band. Their group. Their family. It was taken at the show that Jace and Stephen went to—the night they were essentially discovered by Jordan. A few days after that, she and Jace reunited after what seemed like an eternity, a lifetime ago. And now, standing here in front of the tree that her family, a best friend who seemed to be made up in her mind, an ex-boyfriend she always wondered why she couldn't completely love, and siblings that only made an insane puzzle of people feel more whole, decorated with Christmas music and classic bickering, her eyes teared up.
Not because she was overwhelmed with haunting memories from the past or from tour; it was because there was an overwhelming amount of love. And she felt like it was displayed in that tree.
Clary took a few steps back and sat down when the back of her legs hit the couch. She grabbed a pillow and hugged it and grinned ridiculously in the empty living room. She looked up, resisting to cry over the moment where she realized that she might have so spent many years of her life trying to be normal or simple and apart of the crazy world she grew up in, but there wasn't any normalcy that could've made her feel like she did now. Complete. Whole. That's what she needed. No matter the circumstance she was going to have it in.
She looked up at the door when it opened, and she was immediately grateful that she didn't let herself cry. Her brother looked at her in surprise, with raised eyebrows.
"Please don't tell me you tainted our roof."
He made a face of disgust. "You really wanna know? I'll tell you."
She frowned. "No. Don't."
He smirked a little when he sat down beside her. "Don't ask shit like that, then, or else I'll really tell ya it all."
She looked forward and mumbled, "Just trying to recreate the awkwardness you did when you said something of the sorts."
"Ugh. Lesson learned, indeed."
The two sat in the silence and watched as the Christmas lights seemed to twinkle. Jonathan crossed his arms and got comfortable, sinking into the chair. "Where's Jace?"
"Hopefully going to sleep." She held the folded up paper out to him. Jon took it and opened it, smiling a little when he read it.
"He wrote a song?" He folded it up and passed it back to her. "How did he find the time to write a secret song?"
Clary gave a laugh. "I asked him that, too." She leaned her head back and her chin tilted up. "Last night, apparently. While we were asleep. I think he was trying to tell me that someone could rob us and we wouldn't wake up to even hear it."
Jon gave a nod. "That sounds about right."
Clary's eyes dropped when she remembered why she felt a little relief the moment Jace said he wasn't in bed the night before. She was used to having nightmares, she still had them nightly—even though she initially thought that they would go away since what happened to Jonathan. She thought maybe they were her warning signs that she should've paid attention to. But when they continued, she figured they really were just happening because of the tour and living their former life. So she accepted it. But the night before reduced her to tears and she just didn't have to explain to Jace that her nightmares never ceased.
"What?" Jonathan asked, and she snapped out of her thoughts. She looked over at him.
"What?"
He studied her face. "You were thinking about something."
She shook her head. "Nothing. Just…" She made eye contact. "Jace is moving here."
Jonathan's eyes got wide and he slowly grinned making Clary do so too. "I mean, seriously? No kiddin' around?"
"Nope," she said with a pop, and looked forward. The two were still grinning from ear to ear.
"Who would've ever thought? The three of us back together again." Jon gave a hah. "Touring—not with each other, but still." He glanced at her and lightly nudged his shoulder into hers. "How you doing with that, by the way? You alright?"
Clary stared at the tree as she took her time to genuinely answer. "Yeah." She looked at him. "Really alright. Is that weird?" He shook his head and flashed a smile.
"I think you and Jace were meant for one another. No amount of touring and craziness is gonna be much of a battle to you both compared to the absence you had for years." He shrugged. "Maybe your heart just knows that." Clary nodded. "But I don't care if any cheating rumors are just rumors, he's gonna have to fly his ass here to tell me that I'm crazy. That, or I'll beat his ass." Clary rolled her eyes. "Unless the rumors are gonna be about you and Dylan getting back together." Clary reached over to slap his arms as he roared in laughter.
"Shut up," she hushed him. "And shut up because it's just not funny."
"Oh, right. Impossible." He paused for a moment. "Because the rumors would be that Jace left you so they could with each other." He laughed loudly again, and this time Clary couldn't help but join him. He finally calmed down, and his sister shook her head at him, crossing her arms and never taking her eyes off their tree. "I love you, Clarissa." She looked at him in surprise, but she could see how genuine he was. "Your happiness is mine."
Her eyes softened and she responded with, "Yours is too." He looked away, but she continued to see if his face would change. "Are you? Happy? I mean, independently, without needing anyone to be."
"You mean, am I relying on Mari to be happy?" She nodded when he looked at her for her response. "I am. With or without Mari. She's helping me, with company, and to just always remind what good I've got. But she's helping me in a way that I know I've got to do it on my own too."
"Good." Clary smiled a little when she turned away. "I'm glad she brought her brother. I would've questioned her if she didn't."
"Why?"
"I don't know. Maybe because you look like you could be a serial killer."
Jonathan turned to her and stared.
She shrugged. "Jonathan, look in a mirror. When you aren't smiling, it's like your chanting spells under your breath. That's how angry you look."
With that, he grabbed a pillow and smacked her with it, and she laughed in response.
"Real nice. I tell you I love you and you tell me I'm a serial killer."
"I didn't say you are a serial killer." She took a moment. "You just look like one." She made a noise when he smacked her with the pillow for a second time. She took a deep breath and then stood up, making her way to the piano. "Alright. Let me learn this. Go and get rest for tomorrow."
"You're crazy," he muttered, getting up and heading to his room. She adjusted her chair and the volume of their electronic piano, and he paused before going into his room. He walked to the corner of the hallway, right behind their tree, and whispered, "Clary." She looked up. "I'm always going to be sorry."
Without having to hear that he meant for what happened on tour, she whispered, "I know, Jonny."
His glance dropped, and he gave a nod. "Learn that quick and get some sleep, alright?" She nodded. "I mean it."
"Yes. Now go."
He rolled his eyes at her and turned around to go into his room. Once his door closed, she stopped fidgeting and looked up at the picture of them all on the tree. She took a deep breath and told herself to get comfortable with the feeling that her heart was so full it could burst.
"Alright, how the fuck do I work this thing?" Clary asked out loud, and then her eyes got wide as she looked at the camera in front of her. "Oh, shit, was that on?" She closed her eyes as she cursed again. "Ugh."
The cameraman, Jake, laughed at her and shook his head, as well as the camera. He put it down and helped her with the mic she had to have on until the show started. "Here… May I?" he asked before reaching the box she was trying to figure out where to place. "So this would go in your back pocket…"
"You should yell at Jordan for having you perform at an outside venue at the end of November," Dylan told Jace as she walked up beside him and shivered. "It's bloody freezing." Jace looked at him because of his British lingo, and he shrugged. "Just being around you so much, the British is rubbing off on me."
Jace rolled his eyes and then turned to look back at Clary and Jake.
"Jake," he mouthed, and Dylan looked between Clary and Jace.
"Ugh, Jealous Jace." He waved a hand in front of Jace's face. Jace was unfazed and stared. "Stop it. Stop staring so creepy. He's just helping her with her mic." Dylan rolled his eyes. "It'll be an interesting time apart for you."
"Okay," Jake said, picking up his camera. He pointed it at Clary. "Just an intro to start it off before we go live. Did Sophia tell you what to say?" She nodded. "Remember to mention Elvis." Jake laughed when she looked genuinely excited at the mention of his name. "Right. In one, two, three—go."
"Hey, everybody. Clarissa Morgenstern here." She put out her hands. "I'm here with Z100 and Elvis Duran. If you wanna catch the live cam with me, The Elite Four, and probably Jace Herondale, you can watch it all unfold on the z100 website in about—" Clary looked at her phone. "One hour." She smirked and lifted her chin up into a nod.
She exhaled when the red light turned off and Jake put the camera down.
"Awesome job," Jake complimented her.
"I'm warm from nervousness. It is freezing outside and I am warm."
Jake pursed his lips. "Well, then, it's great that you're about to be on camera for about four hours."
A/N: Before anyone thinks Jake is going to be another guy for Clary, let me assure you he is just the camera man and Jace is just being Jealous Jace. Just wanted to note that right away. And it's just funny to have them be one letter away from having the same name, lol.
But yess, how did you guys like the chapter? I really missed writing Jace and Clary like this—just being really honest with each other. They need that every once in a while. Just because they connect on a different level doesn't mean they don't need to talk. And I just liked that they were finally talking about this subject. Shout out to anyone who always saw those hints. I hope you guys also liked the conversation between Jon and Clary because those are always great to write.
Let me know what you thought about it all! Reviews & feedback, please :)
Also, wanted to do an early greeting, to those who celebrate, hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving this week! Hope you'll be enjoying the time with family, friends, and lots of food. And always think of gritty rap music if you're at something formal because it "instills rebellion."
Thank you, thank you, thank you to those have reviewed this story! Thank you to new readers who are alerting and favoriting. And thank you to anyone who is just reading this crazy ride of a story in general. You are all part of what I'm thankful for this year. Sincerely.
Shout out to rippingbutterflywings, clarissa adele herondale, Guest, Islandgirl4evR, BrunetteAngel, Guest, infamousfanfic, Guest (KB), LOVERGIRL, brightdarknessx, Guest, imcrazyanditscontagious, Bubblegum234, Ads S, bookaddict223, bookobsessedpooj, TwilightAndTmiLover, Dramione-Fan 17, and kaychucks! I'll never be able to express how much I appreciate you all for leaving a review and letting me what you think, and just encouraging the story. I'll always keep trying though, soo. Thank you so much. I'll be replying to reviews soon :)
Shout out to rippingbutterflywings for betaing this chapter and taking the time to do so during her travels! You already know I'm hoping your trip will be absolutely amazing because you deserve it and it makes me too gigil.
Guest: Thank you for your review! I hope you liked the Clace conversation in this chapter!
BrunetteAngel: I love that you enjoyed her reaction. I was feeling just as excited for TE4 when I wrote that part so thank you for mentioning it. And thank youu for the review!
Guest: Thank you for your review! I'm so glad that you liked all the family in the last chapter and all they did while decorating :)
Guest: Happy that you liked the update! I'm glad I didn't disappoint you with the last one, and thank you so much for your review. I wasn't able to fit in the Z100 stuff fully in this chapter but the next chapter will have a ton of it!
LOVERGIRL: Thank you for your review! Hope you liked the chapter!
Guest: Thank you for the chapter love and for your review! Hope you liked this one just as much :)