Chapter three - Once bitten, twice shy

Clary was in the living room the next day, putting back all the ornaments that had fallen from the tree yesterday. She stood on a chair to be able to reach up to the higher branches, too. But even then she had to stand on her tip toes, and she had to keep the balance between her own weight and the gravity. But pretty soon, gravity won and she fell head first off the chair and hit the floor in a very hard and painful way.

She put both her hands on her head and rolled over onto her back, before she sat up. Don't cry now, Fray!, She whispered to herself. But it was difficult not to break out in tears like a four year old, because her head felt as if it was about to explode, plus the pain made her all dizzy. Somehow she managed to sit up straight, even though she was nearly passing out.

She rubbed her head.

"What's going on?" A calm, yet deep voice came from behind her "Are you alright?"

As soon as Clary looked up, she saw Alec kneeling right next to her, and she felt one of his hands on her back, supporting her at sitting straight.

"I fell down the chair, don't worry. It's nothing."

"Sit down!" He forcefully pulled her up onto the couch next to them and sat beside her, as he pulled out his steele "Let me decided if it's nothing."

Goosebumps appeared everywhere on her skin, when Alec grabbed her chin and turned her head around to have a look at the back of her head.

Just as he had expected; A huge bump was right there, were she hit the ground and it looked pretty painful. He thought about using a healing rune, but using his steele on her head would be also painful, So instead he got up and got a towel soaked in cold water; moments later he came back and carefully held up her hair as he pressed it against her head.

"It hurts!", Clary gasped and grabbed Alec's wrist with her hand trying to make him stop as a tear rushed down her cheek.

But he didn't let go; he didn't even react to her touch. He just pressed it down even harder.

"STOP IT!", She couldn't stand it anymore and started kicking around and ..hi somehow him in a highly personal area. Alec inhaled the air and looked at her in pain before he regained his self control and looked at her with a warning glow in his eyes.

"Okay, you begged for it!", with that, he dived at her and grabbed both her wrists tightly and forced them down on the couch, Clary tried to free herself but Alec was already on top of her and pressed her down. Unable to move, she gave him a confused glare as he suddenly laughed and she understood that he was just fooling around.

Alec Lightwood, the usually so serious Alec, was fooling around with her and actually laughed like she had never heard him laugh before. She grinned up at him "Fine! If a fight is what you want!"

"Bring it on, Fray!", he looked at her with a challenging smile.