They reached the island by noon the next day and sere met by a excited Max at the beach. Ever since the operation, Max had made it a point to live life, king size. And so he had been on an around the world kinda trip with his friends for the past month and a half.
"Jace!" Max screamed as he disembarked from the boat. And then he had an armful of squirming teenager, who was like an hyperactive puppy.
"Hey Maxie." Jace said, hugging his little brother close after so many years.
Although as he came to think of it, his squirt of a brother was not so little anymore.
"Hey Max. How was the trip?" Clary asked, getting her own bear hug from the kid.
"Superb." Max said as he launched into a discussion about the trip and what all he saw. Clary looped her arms through his, and the two of them started walking towards the villa, leaving Jace on the beach alone.
Jace sighed, picked up their stuff and started off after the two.
It was only after he had delivered Clary's things to her room, had a brief make out session which made Max blush and returned to his own room that he could take a nice refreshing shower. As he came out of the bathroom, barefoot, wearing only jeans and rubbing his still wet hair with a towel, there was a knock on his door.
It was Clary. Clary who was staring at his chest and seemed incapable of speaking or meeting his eyes.
"You g-got a tattoo?" she finally stuttered after a few minutes.
Jace looked down. Sure enough his tattoo on his abs was visible.
"Always and Forever. Isn't that you thing with Izzy and Alec?" Clary said coming into the room and closing the door behind her.
Jace nodded unable to pull his eyes away from the beautiful girl in front of him. She too seemed to be suffering from a similiar dilemma, unable to tear her eyes away from his still unclothed upper half.
Their lips collided in a perfect frenzy of red hair, golden skin and teeth. As Clary pushed Jace on his bed and proceeded to straddle him, neither of them cared about anything else.
It was only afterwards, as they lay tangled together catching their breaths that Jace asked "Not that I am complaining, but I am guessing you didn't come here for this."
Clary sat bolt upright, causing the sheet to fall down and all sorts of unsavory thoughts to enter his mind "Shit. You friends from college and the rest of the guests are here. Iz told me to call you for lunch."
As she started getting out of bed, Jace reeled her back in "Lunch which we are too late for anyway. Stay here. We will order something. And go out for the party tonight."
As Jace's mouth started moving over her neck and ear again, it did not take much to make Clary stay.
They did as he had suggested. They called for a small snack to be delivered to them and spend the entire day in bed. Watching movies, cuddling and talking. Jace showed her some of the pictures he had taken during his travels. And finally told her about the new opportunity and his decision to move back to New York. Jace would never forget the way that her face lit up hearing that.
It was only at night, that the two finally emerged from their love nest.
"Izzy is going to kill us. Ready?" Jace asked holding her hand as they reached the beach house where the party was.
"Nope." Clary answered as she pushed open the door.
The party was in full swing. It was a college night out thingy, with no parents whatsoever. Jace found a large number of his friends from both college and high school. If anyone from their school was surprised to see Clary Fray there, they didn't show it. They moved deteminedly through the crowd trying to locate Izzy. They found her in the basement sitting in Simon's lap while talking to two of their closest friends from school, Maia and Jordan. He also noticed Raphael, Simon's roommate before him, in the back talking to Magnus and Alec.
"Well, looks like someone got laid." Simon said, raising one of his hands "I demand the highest of fives."
Jace humored him. He was the groom afterall.
"I am just happy, that he got his head out of his ass." Jordan said, as he gave Jace a man hug.
"Yes. He finally got his girl. Few years too late but better than never." Maia said, as she gave Jace and surprisingly Clary a hug.
Clary looked at him full of questions.
"What?" he said, knowing he was probably red as a tomato "I told you I had a huge crush on you."
"Jace Herondale? Had a crush?" Raphael asked, with a hand over his heart.
"Oh, Raphael, one day I will tell you the epic love story of Clace. Featuring a idiot, his beautiful girl, a hot brother-sister duo, the sister's loser hero and the hottest guy of them all." Magnus said winking at Jace.
"Clace?" Clary asked, wrinkling her nose.
"Clary, Jace, Clace." Izzy explained, from her place in Simon's lap.
"Well, I like it." Clary said as she settled on Jace's lap.
"You better, Magnus spend the entire night thinking of it." Alec said as he, Magnus and Raphael joined them.
"We should go out." Izzy said getting up and dragging Simon with her "we were only waiting for you guys."
So, they did. They spend the entire night dancing, meeting their friends, drinking and playing stupid preteen games. They retired only after a frankly juvenile game of spin the bottle. And that too only because Alec puked after being forced to kiss Simon.
The next morning all the guests, every single one of them woke up with a hangover in desperate need for coffee.
Jace for his part woke up tangled up in Clary, and as they went out of his room they were met with Jocelyn. She raised her eyebrow at her daughter, but otherwise said nothing. She was accompanied by a tall guy, who Jace guessed was Luke, Clary's stepfather.
"Hey Luke." Clary said, looking down, unwilling to meet his eyes.
Jace sighed. They were freaking adults, why were they behaving like teenagers.
"I am Jace" he said, putting his hand forward.
"I have seen you somewhere." Luke said, giving him a once over "weren't you the guy who paid the bail for your friend? That kid running naked in the streets?"
Shit. Jace remembered Luke. Long ago, before Simon and Izzy started dating, Simon had visited NYC. One night all of them, Magnus included, had gotten shit faced and Simon had apparently decided that he wanted to run on the streets naked. Luke was the cop on duty who arrested him. It was only the next morning that Jace paid bail for him. In the entire incident he had seen Simon and him, but never met the others. Which explained why even though he had met Alec and Izzy, he never recognised them.
Jace belatedly realised Clary was staring at him.
"That kid is the one getting married." Jace said, smirking.
"Seriously?" Luke said, cracking a smile "he was a sweet kid. Had shitty friends who left him in a cell overnight but he was sweet. Wait, Alec was involved in this?"
Jace could belive that. Alec was the kind of guy who easily won parents' over. No wonder Luke liked him.
"Sir, with all due respect Alec is the one who comes up with these plans." Jace told the cop.
"I can second that, Luke." Clary said as she came out of her shock "although I still can't believe Simon did that."
"Well, he did. You better believe it." With that Jocelyn took Luke to get him settled him.
As they started to make their way for breakfast, Clary looked at Jace "You have photos? Of that day?"
Jace smirked, as he took a seat across from a hungover Alec at the table "You are talking to a photographer. What do you think? I have a shit ton of photos."
"Of what?" Simon asked as he sat down next to Alec, alongwith a suspiciously fresh faced Izzy.
"Naked shenanigans of the groom. On the streets on NYC." Jace told the soon to be married man.
"Why?" Simon moaned.
"Because Clary's stepdad is the cop who arrested you. And he's here." Jace said.
Izzy burst out laughing. "Simon, shit. Beware!"
Magnus who was till that time getting his coffee, now came to the table to sit. Seeing it was only the six of them at the table, he asked "Where are the others?"
"They have gone to Rio. Mom and dad included. Only Jocelyn and Luke are here. They probably won't leave the room." Izzy told them.
"Question is: what are they doing? Biscuit maybe you will get a sibling." Magnus said, wriggling his eyebrows comically.
As Simon burst into giggles and nearly fell of his chair. Jace felt a feeling of contentment and peace settle over him. He realised that Spain was not home, even NYC was not his home. He had been searching for home for so long, yet he never realised home wasn't a place. Home was here, with these people, his family. Home was whereve he was with them. And he vowed neverA to leave them again.