A/N: Hey, it's my first author's note! Just wanted to thank you all for reading - please review and let me know what you think. In this chapter, Clary gets an eyeful, Simon gets some action and Church makes an appearance. Enjoy!

Chapter 5

Jace couldn't believe how amazing Alec tasted.
After all these years of being friends, brothers and parabatai, a new kind of connection was forming between them and Jace couldn't deny that he quite liked it. The sweet taste of Alec's lips wouldn't leave his, but he didn't mind.
But whilst he'd been caught up in Alec, Jace had completely forgotten about Clary. His girlfriend.
"By the Angel," Jace murmured when he saw how many missed calls and texts he'd received from Clary just that day. He didn't use his phone much, and honestly didn't understand what use a Shadowhunter such as himself could get from mundane technology, but Clary had insisted that he have one and answer it when she called.
But he hadn't, and Jace was sure that the stubborn redhead was bound to be pretty annoyed with him.
As if it was a clear sign, the phone started ringing again just as Jace picked it up, vibrating with such intensity that he almost dropped it. But once he had a firm grip on the irritating object, he took a deep breath and held the phone to his ear.
"Jace? Thank goodness, I thought something might have happened! Are you OK? You didn't call me back yesterday so I wondered..."
"No, Clary, I'm fine," Jace insisted, deciding to leave out the fact that he'd not been fine just a day ago when his skin had burned up like a million bonfires. But he didn't want Clary to know that just yet, or she would force him to tell her what the cause had been. He wasn't sure he could lie to her time and time again if she didn't believe him as Maryse hadn't, so he needed a pretty good cover story to convince her.
"Well, I'm on my way to the Institute right now. Simon's with me and he wanted to talk to Izzy." Jace heard a muffled, far off 'hi' in the background that he assumed must have been the vampire. "We'll be there in twenty minutes, tops."
"Great. See you then. Bye." Jace hung up the phone as quickly as possible, unable to contain the unexpected guilt that had struck his chest. He was cheating on Clary. After all they'd been through, he had gone and blown it by making a stupid move on Alec which he couldn't take back. Clary didn't deserve that - she didn't deserve him.
Jace suddenly understood Alec's hesitancy of that morning. Alec hadn't wanted to feel as though he was betraying Magnus, even though they had broken up, and yet here Jace was, still in a relationship as he snogged the shit out of his best friend. What sort of man was he to commit such a crime?
After shedding his Shadowhunter gear as well as the majority of his weapons (you could never be too cautious), Jace left his room and wandered around the Institute until he found the library. Coincidentally, Alec was there, set at a table with an open book in his hands. It was quite obviously a Codex, but the older Shadowhunter closed the book quickly before Jace could see what page he was reading so intently.
"Hey," Jace greeted, collapsing into a chair opposite his parabatai and trying to ignore the longing to kiss the other boy.
"What's wrong?" Alec asked immediately, concern splattering all over his features. His blue eyes glistened and Jace hoped by the Angel that the throbbing beneath his stomach wasn't what he thought it was.. Alec always seemed to know when Jace was upset or angry, even before they'd been connected by the parabatai runes.
"Nothing," Jace said, shaking his head. "Just... Clary." He knew he didn't need to say another word to explain when Alec frowned sympathetically at him.
"Oh," he sighed, and gave Jace that frequently used look that made him know that Alec was about to say something he wouldn't like. "Choose her."
"What?" Jace asked, with a pleading shake of his head. "Alec, what are you talking about? Choose her for what?"
"Choose her over me. You love her, and she loves you. We'll stop this... Whatever this is, but you've got to promise me you'll go back to her and forget any of this ever happened. She doesn't deserve to lose you."
Jace nodded. Alec had to be the most selfless person he knew, although he was sure that the Lightwood was being urged on by guilt - nobody wanted to get on Clary's bad side. But Jace refused to allow Alec to throw away something on the account of somebody else. Besides, maybe he had already decided who he would pick.
"That's true," Jace told the boy, standing to walk to the other side of the massive table and not caring if there was a tent in his trousers. "But neither do you." He leant in and Alec let him, capturing the kiss he'd wanted.

"So, how's Jace these days?" Simon asked Clary as they walked out of the subway and onto the streets of Brooklyn. She sighed and tucked away her cell phone, having just got off the phone with her boyfriend. He'd ended the conversation pretty abruptly, after ignoring her calls for a day before. It was strange, as he'd sounded like he was afraid to speak with her. She had to admit, she was a little concerned.
"He's acting a little strange," she told Simon truthfully, knowing she could trust her friend to make a geeky joke to lighten the mood.
"Well, that's sorta to be expected since he has got fire in his veins... Literally. Maybe if he burns himself almost to death he can go all Darth Vader. Wouldn't that costume be awesome for fighting demons?" There it was. Clary allowed herself to laugh and worry about Jace only once she got to the Institute to see him.
"So, what do you want to talk to Izzy about?" Clary asked, wanting to take her mind off Jace.
"Oh, you know - just stuff. It's good to get away from the apartment, though - Jordan and Maia are at it pretty much 24/7 right now." Clary could only guess what Simon meant by 'stuff' and she wasn't sure she wanted to.
"I think it's nice for them," she said.
"Yeah, real nice. Just not when it's everywhere."
When they finally got to the Institute, Simon waited outside as Clary pushed open the huge front door and proceeded inside. The old church looked just a huge as it always did, but there was a feel of emptiness that made Clary wonder if anyone was home.
She spotted Church, the blue Persian cat, rolling around in a pool of sunlight under a window and coaxed him towards her. The cat came, almost unwillingly and stared up at her, probably wondering why she was disturbing his peace.
"Hey Church," Clary greeted him, not even attempting to pet the grumpy cat. "Where's Jace?"
Clary thought she saw the cat sigh with frustration, but she put it down to tiredness and lack of caffeine on her part. Church, however, led her down the hall to their left and up a staircase, meowing with a moody tone. At the top of the stairs, Clary was greeted by Isabelle, who was dressed in an elaborate fashion with a long black skirt with a slit down the side and a matching bodice.
"Have you seen Simon?" Izzy asked, trying to act aloof about the question, even though Clary knew that the other girl cared more that she let on.
"Sure, he's waiting outside. Actually, he wanted to talk to you so -" Before Clary could even finish speaking, Izzy had rushed down the stairs with her skirt flapping behind her heals. Clary could only guess how Simon would react to her clothes.
Turning around, Clary just caught sight of the end of Church's tail disappearing around a corner and guessed that the cat was heading towards the library. Of course, she should have guessed that Jace would be there, probably studying some ancient Greek text. She rushed to the door and hauled only open.
"Jace, are you in h-" Clary couldn't help but gasp, the rest of her sentence caught in her throat as the image of Alec and Jace kissing sifted through her mind and she tried to make sense of it. Jace looked up, catching her gaze and opening his mouth to say something, but he seemed to be just as lost for words as she was.
Clary couldn't believe what was happening. Had she been hallucinating or had she really just witnessed Jace with his lips to Alec's and his hand creeping under the other boy's shirt? Why on earth had she just seen that - what the hell was going on?! Clary couldn't even think straight, and her only reaction was to run from the room, almost bashing into the doorframe as she made a desperate escape.
Jace stared after his girlfriend as she ran away, not knowing what he could really do after what she'd just seen.
"Oh shit," Alec was repeating again and again, stood from his seat and pacing with his hands in his hair. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit."
"This is bad," Jace said simply.
"You think? This is worse than bad - this is bloody terrible!" Alec blurted out. Jace frowned, wanting to tell his parabatai to calm down but knowing that comfort from him probably wasn't going to help the situation. Then he felt something nudging persistently on his ankle, and looked down to see the blue menace that was Church purring loudly at his feet. He reached down to pick up the cat.
"How could you Church?" Jace said to him. "How could you betray our privacy by leading Clary here? You could have at least given us some warning." Church just meowed lazily and yawned in Jace's face. Jace gave up, setting the cat back on the floor and setting off to follow Clary, hoping he could somehow explain his way out of this sticky situation. Alec was hot on his heels as he ran after her.
"Clary!" Jace called from the middle of the stairs, but it was clear that she had already fled through the front doors and left the Institute. Jace and Alec rushed outside, but Clary was gone. Instead, they were greeted with the unwelcome sight of Isabelle pressed up against a wall by Simon, engaged in a heated kiss that made Alec's eyes widen.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" He shouted, although he sounded more horrified than angry.
"Oh, just kissing away their troubles by the looks of things," Jace commented, and got an unappreciative look from Alec. Izzy blushed a little, which was quite unlike her, and Simon looked all too pleased with himself, a smug grin on his mouth that was so unfamiliar Jace wished he could snapshot it to laugh about it with Clary later.
Clary. By the Angel, what had he done? Not only was she bound to tell someone what she'd seen, but he had hurt her in the most horrible way possible. Alec was right - she didn't deserve that, and Jace wished he had told her what was going on before she found out in such a terrible way.
"Hey, where'd Clary go?" Simon asked, and neither Alec nor Jace had ever wanted to hit him more.