*All the characters from The Mortal Instruments belong to Cassandra Clare and her incredible mind. Nothing will ever be owned by the author of this story. ;)*

Musical Preference:

Warrior- Mark Foster, Kimbra, A-Trak

Bite My Tongue- You Me At Six (feat. Oli Sykes)

Tightrope- Walk the Moon

*time has passed* (the beginning is like sooo reflective to this poem that made me cry at the beginning of the year. I'm sorry)

Chapter Sixteen

Jace had completely forgotten to close the curtains correctly the night before and it was a bright morning. The sunlight was bleeding through his eyelids but he didn't want to get up. Besides, her arm was around him and he liked it that way. It was comforting and he didn't want to wake up.

He opened his eyes and looked towards the intruder in their room. The sun was more than happy to come inside and break them out of their slumber. He unhooked himself from her slowly, admiring the expanse of her fair skin. He closed the blinds so the sun would not wake her, and then walked to the bathroom to take a quick shower. They both had to go to work.

Turning the water knobs, he got in and washed himself out. He went to work on his hair and slowly went down from there.

"Jace?" he heard when he was halfway done. He peaked from the curtain and saw her against the threshold of the bathroom, her mused hair falling down her shoulders and her sleepy eyes closing heavily.

He smiled and opened the curtain. "Wanna join me?" Instead of answering, she took his shirt off and walked in with him. Jace let her be beneath the water spray and took some shampoo into his hand. He motioned for her to turn around, and when she did he started washing her hair.

After a few seconds of comfortable silence, she turned around and spoke up. "Jace?" He hummed in answer. "Have you ever thought that this was weird?"

Jace looked at her green eyes openly. She was one of the only people with who he could truly be himself. "To be honest," he paused, starting to wash the shampoo off her hair. "It is weird. But it's us as well, Cam."

She smiled and closed her eyes, letting him finish washing out her hair.

"I'm happy," she said.

He smiled. "I'm happy, too."

w.^.w

"You'll be fine. If you need anything text us and we'll get you out," Simon reminded Clary.

"Yeah, I'm hoping I don't need to be saved," Clary murmured as she looked outside the window. "It's Amatis's engagement party. I like to believe that once upon a time we were friends due to the unnoticeable age difference."

"She's still your aunt and it's weird," Simon remarked. Clary snorted softly. Amatis was four years older than Clary, but by the time she'd turned sixteen, she began acting like what she was; her aunt. "I just can't believe she's marrying The Hulk," Clary heard Isabelle say.

"Tell Izzy that nobody can believe it," she said as the cab pulled up at the usual restaurant. "Okay, I gotta hang up. I'm here."

"Good luck," Simon said while Isabelle yelled, "Don't kill your grandma!" on the background. Clary hung up with a small smile on her face. She paid the cab driver and went inside the restaurant, hoping that the morning would pass quickly enough.

She was immediately escorted to the secluded part of the restaurant, as per usual. Making a mental note to reduce her eye rolls by seventy percent at least, she entered and smiled at her whole family. She saw her brother first, thankfully, and he almost looked relieved to see her. It was obvious that these kind of things would always manage to take them back to when he was ten and she just two years younger than him.

Cheers erupted when she was finally spotted. They always did this. One person would come and it became a mini party inside the party of the person's arrival. It became tedious after a while.

The first to come was Maia, who could move faster without that baby bump in front of her. "Clary! How are you? You look so good! I'm so glad to see you!"

Clary smiled softly at her and gave her a hug before she went around the table hugging and kissing her uncles' and aunts' cheeks. At the end was Amelia. She smiled, sickly sweet, and folded Clary into a hug. When she pulled away, she looked Clary up and down before nodding and letting her go. Clary wanted to stop and think about that, but Amatis was right behind her mother and it was time to celebrate the correct person.

"Congratulations, Amatis!" she exclaimed genuinely, giving her a strong hug. "I'm so happy for you." Amatis thanked her and then Clary moved to hug Jake, The Hulk, and the lucky guy that was marrying her aunt. Before she could go sit at Jonathan's side, Amatis grabbed her hand and pulled her quickly to her side.

"How are you? Are you okay?" she asked with concern on her eyes. Clary frowned and nodded, not sure where this was going. Amatis looked wary but let her go. John looked confused as she made her way to him. Clary shrugged as she pulled the chair out and sat down.

"What was that about? You and Amatis best friends now?" he asked. Looking incredulous, Clary shook her head.

"I have no idea what that was. I haven't talked to Amatis without Amelia at least fifty feet away." John nodded. "Where's mom and dad, anyway?" she asked, realizing that their parents were missing.

John shrugged and looked towards the door. "I don't know . . . stuck in traffic?"

She frowned. "That's not like them, though." John shrugged and Clary looked at him. It had been maybe three to four months since everything had blown up. As much as Camille had been part of the whole thing, she had made her brother happy and she hated that it was her fault that Jonathan wasn't happy. "How're you doing?" she asked him softly, and when Jonathan's dark eyes met hers, there was understanding about what she was actually asking. Jonathan sighed and smiled sadly.

"I'm holding up, right?" he said and nudged her. "You?"

Clary grinned, but it was almost pretend. "Better than ever."

Jonathan smirked at her. "Uh, huh. Sure."

Everything was going well until the food came. Usually this was the peak of this type of luncheon. Something stupid and controversial would be said at the beginning that would end up causing some tension between everybody but nobody would leave because they had to eat.

Valentine and Jocelyn still hadn't showed up, and Clary figured that if they didn't come by the end of the conflicts, they wouldn't be coming at all.

w.^.w

"But Magnus answered the call before me," Camille said as she drank her coffee. "I couldn't do anything about what happened later."

"I really can't blame Magnus. We were bound to lose them as clients," Jace said as he too took a sip from his coffee.

"That's what I told Magnus," Camille said with a small laugh. "He felt so bad and—" she trailed off as she looked over Jace's shoulder. Jace frowned and looked behind him. Jonathan was walking through the door of the restaurant and escorted to the private part of the restaurant. Jace knew what that meant.

"Family reunion," Camille said, basically reading his thoughts. "Clary shouldn't be far behind."

Jace sighed and turned back to Camille. Her green eyes that were sparkling just seconds before were now sad. The mention of Clary was a direct blow if he was being completely honest.

A few minutes later, Camille made a gesture for Jace to look behind him and when he did he saw her. Clary was crossing the restaurant as she was escorted to the same room that Jonathan had been taken to. It wasn't too far from where they were sitting, and they could hear that there was some kind of celebration going on.

"You miss him, don't you?" Jace asked quietly as he turned to her. Camille returned her eyes to his and he could see the guilt that was pooling in them.

"I never lie to you, why would I start now?" she asked rhetorically. "Yes. I really do."

Jace sighed and set his coffee down. "This is all my fault. You shouldn't be with me. You should be with him."

Camille smiled sadly. "And you should be with her. But you've been so stubborn."

"What are you talking about?" he asked with a frown.

"I'm talking about how I told you to fight for her, but it's been almost four months and instead you went and found comfort in me. And no—" Camille stopped Jace's objections, "there was nothing wrong with it because I did the same."

"But I do love you, Cams," Jace told her softly. She covered his hand with hers.

"And I love you, but our love is not the romantic kind of love. It felt like it but, I hate to say this but, I never felt what I felt with John with you. It almost felt like there was something missing."

Jace stared at her for the longest time and he had to admit that what he had with Camille had never been quite like what he had had with Clary. Sometimes when he stared too long at Camille's eyes, he could pretend like he was looking at Clary, and he always felt like a piece of shit after that.

"So now we're gonna wait for them to come out," he said with a small grin.

Camille laughed. "It was a pleasure being your girlfriend, Jace Wayland." Jace gave her a full on grin.

"Likewise, Camille Belcourt."

w.^.w

Without further ado, Amelia began talking, but it was normal conversation. Clary met Jonathan's eyes as they patiently waited for the bomb to drop. They wondered to whom it would be directed, but they'd never expected for them to be the targets.

"So, Clary," Amelia began after talking about her new dog to one of their cousins. Clary raised her eyes to her so she would see she was paying attention. "When are you bringing that boyfriend of yours so we can meet him?"

Clary felt her hand tighten around her fork, and her jaw clenched. She smiled before putting her fork doing and sitting correctly. "I'll bring him when I get one good enough for me, grandma."

Amelia's eyes sparkled and it only made Clary sick. Weren't they supposed to be family? This is not how a family works.

"But what about that young boy you were telling me about a few months ago . . . ? That CEO from that company . . ." she kept trailing off, trying to make Clary break. The rest of their family had started to become quieter by the second, not knowing what would happen.

"It didn't work out," she said, trying not to show how much this was upsetting her. It had been a while, but it still hurt. She couldn't say that she didn't love him anymore, but she was slowly getting over him. This was just like rubbing salt onto the wound.

"It seems like you can't make anything work lately," she commented offhandedly. Clary let her fork drop and clank loudly onto the table and pushed her chair back loudly. Jonathan put a hand on her forearm that prevented her from standing up. Clary looked at the rest of her family looking at her, not sure what to expect from her sudden outburst.

Clary leveled her grandmother with a cold look. "I don't know how you want me to take a comment like that."

Amelia put her hands together on top of the table. "I want you to take it for what it is." She smiled. "The truth."

Jonathan let her forearm go and that was all the incentive Clary needed. She stood up from her chair and leaned over the table so Amelia could see her. "I won't let you speak to me like that. You may be my grandmother, but that still doesn't give you the right to disrespect me."

"Clary, Clary, Clary, darling. Don't take it like that. It's a little bit of constructive criticism."

Clary waited. Waited for an apology or for a sarcastic comment on how she was lying. But nothing came. Everybody had stopped eating by then, waiting for one to back down or actually get into a fight.

"No," Clary said in a hard tone. She was done with dealing with Amelia's shit. "That is not constructive criticism. Want to give me constructive criticism? Tell me what type of guy to stop going for. Tell me what are definite signs that a guy is not good enough for you. But telling me that I cannot make things work is plain criticism. There is nothing constructive about a fucking comment like that."

"Clarissa! I will not let you use that type of language in my presence!" she scolded, appalled for a moment that Clary would be using words like that.

"Then I will not let you bully me in front of everyone here. You've told me that type of stupid comments all my life. But I am done. You do not get to talk to me the way you do. I am done feeling like shit after you talk to me because you always make me feel like I'm a piece of trash! You tell me I'm not good enough, that I don't do anything right. And even when you tell me something nice, you say it with so much poison that I can't take you seriously."

Amelia was sitting very still in her chair. Everybody was, but she looked the most tense. Her eyes were glaring at Clary, almost accusing her for embarrassing her in front of the whole family.

"Clarissa, sit back down and be quiet," she ordered. Clary raised her eyebrows. She turned to Jonathan to make sure she had heard correctly. Jonathan's eyebrows were furrowed and he almost looked confused at the sudden change.

"No," she said as she stood up straighter and crossed her arms. Amelia's eyes narrowed further.

"Sit," she ordered as she slowly stood from her chair. Clary almost found it comical how she actually expected Clary to follow her orders.

"No," she repeated, firmer. "I have never really respected you enough and I don't think I'll start now. So, no."

Amelia looked like she was fuming. Her eyes were darker than usual as she tucked her chair under the table. "You wouldn't be acting like this if your parents were here," she said in an angry tone.

"You wouldn't be acting like this if my parents were here," Clary retorted. "You need as many people as you can get on your side, but it's obvious that you never needed me. You always thought I was this little lap dog, but that was only because I was raised to treat my elders with respect. But I was also taught to never let anyone step on me. I let you for my whole life because you are my grandmother," she continued, angrily grabbing her stuff. She could see from her periphery that Jonathan was ready to leave the happy celebrations with her.

"I'm not going to listen to you anymore," Clary said dismissively as she adjusted her purse on her shoulder. "And I don't expect you to listen to me, so goodbye, Amelia." Clary spun on her heel and started walking. She felt Jonathan hot at her heels. As they passed Amatis, Clary touched her shoulder and mumbled an apology, but Amatis seemed to understand their sudden departure. Clary just wanted out.

Once they were out of the secluded area, Jonathan pulled her close to his side. "Damn," he said. "That was fucking amazing!"

Clary snorted at him and walked faster, wanting to get out of the restaurant as soon as possible.

"No, but seriously!" Jonathan continued as she hadn't answered him. "That was fantastic! I've been wanting to do that my whole life. I can bet that everyone in that room has fantasized of doing what you just did. Just . . . wow."

"Shut up, John," she said as she felt her cheeks redden. She felt lighter, like she had gotten rid of the most troublesome part of her life. That wasn't probably true, but it was very close.

As they left the restaurant, their parents were barely entering. They all stopped and just kind of assessed each other. Finally, Valentine spoke up.

"So, the party's over?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's over for us," Jonathan said with a laugh. Clary rolled her eyes at her brother and then noticed her mom looking at her confused.

"Well, I'm pretty sure you two can go in. It's probably really tense in there. Maybe John could also go on in, but that'd be awkward. All I know is that I am not welcome," Clary said.

Both Valentine's and Jocelyn's eyebrows rose at that and Jonathan hurried to explain. "Grandma said something really mean to Clary and Clary just defended herself. That's all that happened."

"Clary," her dad began, reprimanding.

"Dad, please. You would be on my side if you would've heard her," Clary said softly. Her dad smiled a bit and shrugged.

"Well, I guess we better go then?" he said, beginning to turn back to go to her car when Jocelyn grabbed his arm.

"Yes, we should go but . . ." she trailed off as she glanced behind Clary and Jonathan. Clary frowned and looked behind her. Almost immediately she wanted to turn back but her mother would just make her say hello out of respect. Jonathan turned around with her and sucked in a breath. What a day, Clary thought sarcastically.

Jace and Camille stood in front of them looking as surprised as they felt. He looked as good as always. His blonde hair was everywhere, but good everywhere. He was wearing a nice button-down with the sleeves rolled up, nice black dress pants. His forearms were flexing as he kept opening and closing his hand and Clary remembered that the best nights she had had were with him.

But when Clary made eye contact with Jace, she saw that his gold eyes were shining but still broken as they looked at her. Clary could almost bet that her eyes looked the same to him. It wasn't making matters better.

"Hey," Camille finally broke the silence. Clary looked at her but she was looking at Jonathan the same way that Clary was probably looking at Jace. Clary hated it. She wanted to hate Jace, she wanted to hate him so badly, but there was something about his eyes that made her stop before shouting at him.

"Hi," Clary said to Jace mostly. His eyes almost reflected the battle he was having with himself. He scratched the back of his neck before meeting her eyes again. His eyes changed, almost like determination, as he turned to Camille. She looked at him and nodded with a small smile. Jace smiled before he turned back to Clary.

"You think we could talk?"

HEY GUYS! I updated before TAKS week. Look at that. I think it has been a long time since I updated fast. I feel good.

It's kinda short again but like, it was fast, right? I'd like to think I'm making up for my terrible updating skills.

I am just saying that you guys shouldn't expect an update soon. We're getting close to AP tests and yeeeeeah. Lots of studying for moi. I just hope this made you guys happy because hearing from all of you again was great. Thank you for keeping up with Black Ace still. I love all of you to bits.

I guess this is sorta to celebrate my birthday of last week and also that I have a laptop (hehehe I'm floating high) but yeah thank Camille for this wonderful chapter. She's dying of pain and still awake to read it. She's a fighter. (except not really)

Thanks guys and I really hope you guys can...

Review?