Who else heard that Jamie Campbell-Brower is casting as Jace? What are your thoughts?

Disclaimer:

Aden: Say it. *smiles*

Me: Oh no, I'm not falling for that again!

Aden: *smile drops off his face* Say it. *holds up a seraph blade*

Me: Uh, I don't think so. I own you. And Selena. *smiles smugly*

Aden: Yeah, well you don't own The Mortal Instruments. *walks away*

Me: =O

Right, I haven't been saying this, but now that they are a bigger part of the story, PLEASE DO NOT TAKE SELENA OR ADEN. Thank you! Much appreciated.

Do you guys really want me in hyper mode? Because with going over the goal again in just THREE DAYS (well two and a half because I posted it at night and then 110 a few days later – you know who you are =D). And I barely had any time to write this week too, yet you got me writing crazy when I can! And before I did this chapter, I had to do the banner for the last chapter (I always do). Right, if I've been forgetting to say this sorry, but thanks to all those who reviewed, added my story to story alert and/or favorite story and favorite author. You all make my day

Oh, and I updated a day before a week =) I'm so proud of myself lol.

Chapter 16: Smiles

Three and a half weeks later…

Clary's Point of View

"Stop, stop!" I managed to gasp out in between laughs.

"What's the magic word?" a voice asked me teasingly.

"Aden!" I squealed before I was laughing again and had no breath left to talk. "Stop tickling me, please," I begged him after I caught a gasp of air.

"No, the tickle monster won't stop unless he gets what he wants."

"Fine. Love you. Now let me go!" I wrenched free from his soft yet hard hand without meeting any resistance.

"That's my girl," Aden smiled fondly at me.

"Yeah, yeah, Dee," I muttered. My sides ached from the tickling. I thought that Blue as a nickname was kind of stupid and now it's Dee, I liked it.

Aden and I have officially become a couple on our third day of dating. I told my parents that night and they seemed surprised but once they meet him, they were fine. Better than they were with Jace even though Aden is older than Jace. Well, for Jocelyn anyway.

And whatever weird reaction Magnus had from Aden and Selena, it was long gone. He was more comfortable with them living in the Institute even before we even were. It looked like it was as natural as breathing for him. Maybe I just imagined the whole thing.

Yes, Aden and Selena finally decided to settle down here. And I wasn't the only one with dating news. Selena and Jace became official around the same time as us, Simon and Izzy decided that they were exclusively dating now and Mia seemed to be with one of her old ex's. I think his name was Jordan or Kyle. He was a werewolf too apparently.

Life went back to normal – well, as normal as you could get with two new Shadowhunters living here and with Jace and I broken up. Surprisingly, we were still on good terms but not exactly friends yet. As long there were other people there as well, it wasn't awkward.

An arm wrapped around my waist, and I snuggled into Aden's side, resting my head on his shoulder. We were in his room and it was clean, but not Jace clean. He did have a few things scattered here and there but they were in an organized messy way, the way some guys style their hair like 'bed-messy'.

Without even looking, I could tell you what's covering Aden's walls; pictures of us. Sure, they Selena covered a fair amount too – they did know each other since they were in diapers – and an occasional one with Izzy, Alec or Magnus, even a rare couple with Jace but I was in most of them. I took him everywhere, eager to show him everything here. And he was just as eager to see it.

I also had told Aden that Jace was my recent ex right off the bat, even before we were official. It wasn't fair that he didn't know that I was still sort of upset with it that then and he didn't know; he had a right to know. He didn't even seem surprised by it and took it rather easily.

"Clary," Aden murmured into my hair, "what are you thinking about?"

"Huh, wha- oh, nothing really. Just spacing out, really."

Aden was just about to respond when the door burst open.

Jace's Point of View

I opened the door, to see Clary curved perfectly into Aden's side and her head resting on his shoulder. His head was on top of hers, with an arm around her waist. His mouth was open, as if he was going to say something but he got cut off. By me. Oh well, I thought, trying not to dwell on the fact that Clary was curled up here with her boyfriend.

It wasn't exactly as awkward between us like it was before, but I still couldn't help the little jump my heart gave me at the sight of them. For some reason it felt wrong when she was with him. It wasn't like this when Sel and I were first dating, but the feeling was growing stronger and stronger since then. I don't really understand why I cared that much – Clary was free to marry whomever she pleased.

"Get ready to puke," I said, hiding what I was thinking with my wit. Clary could read me like an open book, the words enlarged by a magnifier. And I didn't want her know about this feeling. "Lunch."

Aden groaned and Clary rolled her eyes before lightly slapping his arm that was resting on her waist. "Aden, be nice, she's gotten better!"

"Yeah," Aden snorted. "Because of the cookbook you gave her as a 'summer gift'." He mocked Clary at the last part, using a girly voice.

Clary frowned. "I so do not talk like that. And hey, at least we don't have to starve ourselves now. You guys should be thanking me."

I lowered and lifted my head and my arms in a mock gesture of a bow. "Happy?"

"Ecstatic," was Clary's sarcastic reply.

"Okay," Aden said, getting up and clapping his hands together. "Who's ready for torture time?"

Clary elbowed him as we walked down the corridor but there was a soft smile on her lips. When we reached the kitchen, with me still talking about how horrible Iz's cooking was when we walked through the door.

"Fine," Izzy huffed. "You can go starve then." We all shared a look.

"Like we didn't already," Clary whispered to us. We all started laughing when we all stopped at Izzy's piercing gaze.

"Here you go," Izzy said, giving a plateful of…mush. I had no idea what this girl had made, and I usually could guess right from living with her since I was ten. You think a man by now after living with her all these years would know, but nooo. She just had to go and prove me wrong.

Clary's Point of View

I stifled a laugh at the mush that was on his plate. I think it was suppose to be pasta but looked like a very messed up mashed potatoes.

Well, at least Izzy and Jace were on better terms now. I felt bad that they were fighting before because of me. Stupid guilty conscious – it was his fault.

Shoving those thoughts away, I tried not to gag when Izzy handed me a smaller serving of the mush. Now, it wasn't looking as funny as it was before. I saw Jace, who was sitting across from me, in our usual seats since the dinner with Maryse, smirk as if knew what I was thinking.

He wrinkled his nose and made a big show taking a bite of the pasta. Rolling my eyes, I tried not to concentrate on what I was eating and just shoving it down my throat. It wasn't half bad if you didn't see what you were eating. Oh, who was I kidding, it was pretty bad.

Izzy sat down and took a bite of her pasta before spitting it out and dropping her fork on her plate with unnecessary force. "Why didn't you guys tell me that this tasted like cardboard?" Izzy exploded.

We all stopped eating and looked at her. "Well?" Izzy demanded after no one said anything. We were still too stunned that Izzy admitted that her cooking sucked. "Do you have anything to say about this?"

"Yes, I do actually. How do you know what cardboard taste like?" Aden asked sarcastically; always a kidder. Again, it sounded like something Jace would say. It never ceased to surprise me about how alike they are.

"I did dare her once to," Jace jokingly added.

"I never ate cardboard and you know that!" Izzy threw, rather hard I might add, a hand towel at Jace. He plucked it out of the air with ease.

"Control Izzy, control." Izzy took a deep breath. I think she was going to kill him; I tensed, ready to spring if Iz decided to claw Jace.

"Control yourself Herondale. Now, who wants Chinese?" Izzy asked, pointedly not looking at Jace. I was too shocked to answer – I was kind of counting on Izzy beating him up. It would do him some good to his fat head.

"Me!" Alec crowed, not bothering to care about the look Izzy gave him for being so eager.

"Second it," I agreed.

"Same," Aden agreed. Leaning toward me, he whispered in my ear. "Looks like we aren't starving today, are we?"

I giggled and stuck a forkful of mush in his open mouth. "Hey – what the?" exclaimed Aden when the fork was coming in view and chocked out that last part.

"Eat up," I laughed.

"Clary!" Aden playfully batted at the arm that was holding the fork that was still in his mouth.

"What, you deserved that." Aden just shook his head and chuckled, swallowing the mush and dropping the fork on his plate.

"Hey guys, what do you want?" Izzy called out, her hand covering the speaker on the phone.

Everyone rattled off names of things they liked. "And don't forget Mu Shu Pork!" I added. Surprisingly, no one – not even Jace himself or Selena – said it. It was pretty good but that was Jace's favorite.

"Like I could forget," Izzy laughed and rolled her eyes but she repeated Mu Shu Pork into the phone. Jace shot me a look – one that was grateful and some other emotions mixed in it. Surprise maybe? How could I not know, I was with him for a year and a half.

"Okay," Izzy shouted over our voices, breaking my gaze away from Jace to Izzy. "Who wants to go pick it up?"

"I will!"

"Me!" I said at the same time as someone else. Jace.

We both just looked at each other. Izzy cleared her throat. "Okay then. I guess it's settled. Unless anyone else wants to go?" Izzy asked, raising her eyebrow – dang, why can everyone raise one eyebrow except for me? – in question.

I looked at Aden, and he gave me a shrug, as if saying, do whatever you think would be the best. I'm guessing no Aden then. His eyes were saying that he would come if I wanted him to though.

Jace's Point of View

I looked over at Sel, and she gave me a short nod, one that I wasn't even sure if I actually saw. The look her in eyes clearly said, patch things up with Clary. I'll give you guys some alone time. I gave her a quick, small smile and snatched the keys that were dangling out of Izzy's hand.

I smirked at her before calling out to Clary. "C'mon, let's go." After the whole incident about us Shadowhunters with all this sick, insane training but not knowing how to work a computer and more importantly, how to drive, we were all were required to learn how to.

We even had two laptops in the library. Sad thing was that Aden and Sel knew how to drive ever since they were old enough. Actually, they learned how to start driving at fourteen – insane right?

They were living in South Dakota at the time, not leaving for Idris for another year or so. Apparently, you can get your learners permit at fourteen. If I lived there, I would be scared as hell; it was bad enough that New York drivers were bad drivers as adults, but fourteen year olds? Insane.

I climbed into our jeep – hey, you never know with us – and started the engine. It purred to life as Clary, slightly struggled to get up into the car from the big gap.

I resisted the urge to laugh right out and considered helping her up before rejecting that idea. Aden would be pissed at me if I even touched her. Sure, we got along, but he could tell that I 'screwed her up pretty badly'. I'm not even kidding, that's what his face looked like what it said when he found out – I'm pretty sure that was what he was thinking – even though he never said anything about it outright.

And I don't blame him, but my thoughts were unnecessary. Not two seconds after struggling to get in, she plopped down onto the seat and strapped on her seatbelt immediately.

"What, scared of me driving?" I smirked at her.

"Cheaaaa," she drawled out sarcastically at me, cupping her cheek as she looked out the window. Resisting the urge to put my fingers under her chin and make her look at me, I gripped the steering wheel a little more tightly than necessary and with both hands.

We were halfway to the Chinese restaurant before I could take it. The silence was maddening. "What's wrong?" I asked, exasperated and throwing up my right hand. I didn't need to drive with two hands anyways.

"Nothing," she muttered and continued gazing out the window steadily.

"Clary," I said, growling a bit. "Tell me."

"There is nothing wrong. Yesh Mr. Worrywarts."

"I don't have warts."

"I never said you did," Clary replied.

"Yeah, but you implied it," I argued. We continued bickering for a bit, falling into easy, meaningless chatter.

I pulled over the street, near the restaurant, and hopped out the jeep, going over to the other side to open the door for Clary. She however, had other plans. Her legs were already dangling down the side, trying to get down.

Clary's Point of View

I jumped – and nearly fell. Curse my shortness. I stumbled into something hard and I thought that I much too vertical to be landing on the floor. And no way was I on the floor, not with my training.

Strong arms encircled my upper arms as I was steadied and pulled away from the hard chest. I looked up to meet gold. Jace. "Thanks," I muttered, breaking away from him and walking into the restaurant.

I gave them Izzy's name and was joined a few seconds later by Jace. His face was perfectly blank. Too blank. He was hiding something from me. Wha-, I wondered, before realizing why. I must have looked a bit…freaked out there.

Yup, I most certainly was not use to being touched by Jace, not since I punched him. The man gave us three bags, and Jace, trying to be a gentleman, took the bags when I tried to. "You two have a nice day," the man called out to us. We just nodded our heads to show that we heard as we left.

I rolled my eyes at him as we walked toward the jade jeep. "I can carry that," I said. He didn't have to treat me like I was helpless.

"I know."

"So why don't you let me?" I asked.

"Because it's called being nice. You should try it some time," he informed me with a straight face.

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Well saying that wasn't very nice, now was it Mr. Nice?"

"Touché." I smirked at him as we climbed back into the jeep.

It was quite the whole ride home. It wasn't the awkward kind of quite were no one knows what to say, but the quite, comfortable quite for once. It was a nice change; it was like the good old times again.

Something poked me in the side."Wha…?" I asked tiredly as I swatted slowly at the thing that was jabbing me. My eyelids fluttered open to reveal none other than Jace.

"Oh, Sleeping Beauty finally awakes!" Jace announced, looking back around him as if there was a crowd around us.

"Oh, shut up," I murmured as I brushed past him, feet crunching loudly on the loose stones. I could feel the heat crawling up my cheeks from embarrassment.

"Am I really that boring?" Jace asked, feigning hurt as he put his hands on his chest were his heart is.

"Mhmm." I opened the doors, not wanting see him. It still felt weird. I mean, my ex boyfriend and my current one living together, under the same roof? And in general with Jace, I've felt weird around him, something I've never really felt until last month.

I could feel Jace's disbelieving face boring holes in my back. I turned around sharply. "Is there a reason why you are staring at me? I know I'm pretty and all, but you don't to stare." I used his cocky tone, just to annoy him. Of course I didn't really think that, but what did he know?

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Don't flatter yourself."

"Oh, I will," I smiled and walked through the kitchen doors, everyone cheering as we set down the food.

Everyone dug in as if their lives depended on it. Well, I guess it did, compared to Izzy's cooking. After the scraping sound of metal on plate slowed down, Jace announced, "Clary fell asleep on me!"

Everyone gave me a questioning look. "What were you doing up so late to make you tired?" She waggled knowing eyebrows at me.

"Izzy! It's not like that, and anyways, Jace is really boring."

"Mhm, tell it to the judge."

After some more teasing and cleaning up I had training to do. Luckily, Jace now was not my only trainer anymore. It alternated with Jace, Izzy and Alec. They offered Selena to train me too since she was the same age as Alec – shocking I know; she's older than Jace! – but she denied, saying that she wasn't good at teaching others.

Aden would have been able to train me but since he was my boyfriend and no one trusted just us to train, that didn't happen, much to my disappointment.

I don't get why they trusted Jace but not Aden. I mean really? Trust Jace over Aden? But then again, Jace proved to be serious about training. Whatever, I still spent tons of time with him anyway.

Today was Izzy's turn to train me, and boy was she going to get beat up for saying that comment earlier. I didn't even sleep with Jace, so why would I sleep with Aden?

I didn't have to wait long; Izzy was out pretty quick much to my surprise. "Okay Clary, combat training. Try to knock me off my feet," she said with a wicked grin before springing at me.

She landed on my back, weighing more than I thought she would weigh. But she was tall. Never mind, I didn't have time to think about stuff like that.

She locked her arms tightly around my neck, not enough to choke me, but enough to make it really uncomfortable. I jabbed my elbow at her stomach, efficiently getting her to gasp out of pain and loosen her hold on me.

Smiling, I grabbed her now loosened hands and flipped her over my head, landing with a loud thud on the mat, lying on her back. I smiled down at her – one of the very few rare times – and offered her a hand up. She took my hand and…

Pulled me on the ground too, with her rolling on top of me. I struggled against her weight, trying to gain the upper hand but it was no use. She smiled at me, thinking she won.

After a while of trying, I gave her my best defenseless, lost look before hooking one of my legs around hers and using it to flip me over on top. I then wrapped both of my feet around hers so she couldn't move it and put both of her hands over her head in an iron hold.

The only sounds you could hear were our panted breathing. Sticky sweat coated my skin but Izzy wasn't even sweating, per usual. As our breathing slowed down, I heard another person breathing in the room.

I slowly turned my head around while Izzy craned her head up.

Aden's Point of View

I was watching them for a while, with them grunting without realizing it. As quickly as Izzy had sprung on Clary, it ended just as quickly. Technically, even though they continued to fight, Clary already won. Izzy had said to knock her off her feet, which she already did within the first five seconds.

It was actually pretty funny to watch them wrestle on the floor, but I couldn't help but notice how lethal Clary was, despite looking petite. Who would ever guess someone like her could take on someone that was much bigger than her?

Clary, at the end, won again. I was surprise – Izzy should be better than this. But Clary became really good too. I'll have to remember not to mess with her, I jokingly thought to myself. Clary just sat on top of Izzy for a while, in the same position, not making the same mistake twice.

And they still didn't notice me. Oops, looks like I spoke too soon. Clary turned her head slowly right then, to meet my blue gaze.

"Hey," she said with a small smile.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" I asked.

Clary furrowed her eyebrows, then understand washed through her face.

She quickly scrambled up. "I didn't mean for you to find out this way," she answered, looking a bit nervous…and guilty?

I blinked – no, she was just joking…I hope. And that's when Clary started to burst out laughing.

Jace's Point of View

I stood at the open door to the training room. Clary was doubling over laughing, with a slightly confused Aden and a smiling Izzy.

"What's going on here?" I demanded.

"I – Aden, he –" Clary sputtered, not really making sense. She was wiping at the tears that were oozing out from the corners of her eye from laughing so hard.

"Uh, Clary?" I asked, concerned.

"She'll be okay in a minute," Izzy responded. Clary did stop laughing eventually.

"What happened?" I asked after she stopped.

"Aden was joking around asking if I had to tell him anything – I was beat Izzy in training, and I was pinning her down – and then I acted all guilty and he believe me for a second that I was lesbian. As if," Clary explained, erupting into another fit of laughter. She must have realized what it seemed like.

Aden just turned a beat red, muttering something about how it wasn't true. "Aw, it's okay Aden. I'll make it up to you," Clary offered her rather embarrassed boyfriend.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," I warned her.

"Oh shut up, not everyone is perverted like you," she retorted.

"Yeah, they are, they just don't show it."

"Mhmm."

"Hey, don't you go falling asleep on me again." That's the last thing she said to me before she fell asleep in the car. I was surprised – Clary was a rather light sleeper.

"Yeah, I think I'm getting a big tired actually," she said, faking yawning.

"Great. So now we have another cat in this house."

"Are you calling me fat?" Clary asked me, her eyes dancing.

"Church is not fat!" Izzy protested, the only one thinking about the cat. Only because you feed him all that fish, I thought. It was Izzy's fault. He was the only one that actually ate her cooking.

"Yeah, sure he isn't. Just how you aren't dating Simon."

"But I am!"

"My point taken."

"By the Angel, can you two stop bickering?" Clary asked, exasperated.

"It was your fault," Izzy and I said at the same time. We looked at each other and high-fived. Ha, that just showed her, I thought while chuckling.

"I know Clary, let's go the Pandemonium tomorrow," Aden suggested. "We haven't gone since we met." He flashed her a grin.

"Yeah, we should all go!" Izzy exclaimed, getting excited. "Oh, that's if you two don't mind," Izzy added politely, looking at Clary and Aden with pleading eyes. I was just surprised that she asked if they could come and didn't just thrust herself in their plans.

"Why not?" Clary invited.

"Great, it's settled then. Clary, we need to pick out outfits. And oh, we need to tell Selena! Bye guys," Izzy said quickly, getting hyper and towing Clary out of the door before Clary could protest.

It was just me and Aden.

And he was giving me a wicked smile.

Dun dun dunnnn! What happens next? Well, only I know ;D. I'm evil, I know. I personally didn't really like this chapter – really boring to me except the ending and the beginning. Pretty sucky filler, I know. Just to clear things up, Aden is 19 and Selena is 18 ½ and Jace is 18 and Clary is 17 as well as Izzy. And yes, Selena is older than Jace but only like by half a year or less.

Oh, okay, so secret word time! It's Injury. Why? (you know I always have a reason why) Because I twisted my ankle and for the past four days it's really hurting and I might have sprained it =/ Just when we started playing soccer too! And my wrist really is bothering me too sadly. So that's the reason why this wasn't up earlier (I know I already said I was busy) but I hurt my wrist and I have to type more slowly and..yeah. With the little time I got to write, it took me even longer because of this. So sorry about that. Oh, right, goal. its 117 =) Thanks for going over it last time guys =) (if you haven't noticed by now, I go up by 7 each time =D)

~Icyfirelove3

P.S. Check out the stories I beta for! All of Bookninja15's stories (too many to list out =P), Coolxnerd's You Should Have Stayed and MollyGM's City of Bones Jace POV! All really talented authors =)

Also – I mightnot make a banner for this chapter. I can't find a good scene and chapter to do it…so if anyone has any suggestions, please tell me! (and what person could be Aden – blue eyes, sandy brown hair and tall)

Fun Fact: Yes, in the US, you can learn to drive at age fourteen. I learned that in SS one year and I thought it was pretty interesting and remembered that. And that I wanted to move to one of the five states (Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, and South Dakota) right after I learned that. Still do, you get everything earlier there for driving!

Reviews will make me happy =) And you get a sugar cookie with sprinkles.