Lacie: Have I ever mentioned to you guys that I just love it when you all tell me where you're from? (I'm not asking you to tell me I'm just saying) because that way when someone makes fun of me or something, I can be all 'Shut your mouth! Someone in the Netherlands loves me :D'
Clary: Neverland? :o
Chris: Netherlands. Completely different place. Does not contain boys that never grow up.
Lacie: Or Tinker Bell
Clary: Not even crazy pirates or flying kids from London?
Lacie: No
Clary: Damn it
Chris: *mumbles*Well to say that there's never been flying kids in London would be a lie…
Lacie: What?
Chris: Nothing. Clary has her head in the fictional world too much.
Clary: I like the fictional world. It's so much better than reality.
Lacie: I second that.
Chris: But if you leave your mind to your imagination too much, one day something is going to happen in reality and you'll never see it comi-*Clary whacks him with a sock full of peanut butter*
Chris: *gapes* What was that for?!
Clary: Did you see that coming?
Chris: No!
Lacie: Then I guess you're not in reality XD
Clary: *swing her peanut butter sock threateningly* Lacie-Abyss does not own TMI. I don't own this sock either. It's Chris's.
Chris: *glances at his shoe* how did you take my sock…without taking my shoe off…
Clary: Bet you didn't see that coming either XP
Lacie: I may or may not have been watching a little too much Disney and/or nickelodeon
Enjoy!
Clary POV
Honestly, Clary considered it a miracle that no one (other than the Clave) has deemed her crazy and decided to throw her into an asylum yet. With everything that has happened in the past year, all the insane actions and decisions she has taken, it baffled her to think that not one of her friends have gone, 'Okay. No, she's crazy, time to take her to a mental hospital. I think we're done here.'
How much more unbelievable her life could get, she had no idea. She went from short, red headed artsy girl with a single mother and one friend, to a short red headed, part angel girl with a kidnapped mother, crazy father, long lost brother that she was in love with, and a vampire best friend, to finally, a short, sometimes red headed, sometimes part demon, sometimes part angel, fugitive girl with a mother who probably disowned her, a father who was killed by the Angel himself, a real long lost brother that she loves, a guy that used to be her boyfriend but she has no idea where the stand anymore, a Daylighter best friend, and several more fugitive friends.
All of whom were staring at her as if she gave birth right in front of them, right there in the kitchen.
Wherever Valentine Morgenstern's soul ended up, she thought out of nowhere, he must be laughing his Angel-singed butt off.
Where was her life heading towards, really? If her life was a story, and people were reading it at that very moment, they must have thought, "What the hell is going on? What is this? What is this story coming to?"
Her life would be a looooooooooooong book. Or a whole series.
"Clary?" Maia's voice snapped her out of her thoughts, "Are you serious?"
She blinked, "Yeah." Then, putting her hands on her hips, she said more convincingly, "Yes, I'm going to turn myself in to the Clave. In exchange for the freedom of Magnus, Maryse, Robert, Luke, Jocelyn and whoever else finds themselves in the Clave's grubby hands because of me."
"And you think that that's going to be it?" Maia added, her eyes questioning, "You really think that giving yourself up like that will just solve everything?"
Everyone around her, except for Jace and Chris, surprisingly, erupted in agreement. Izzy was shaking her head, Alec stared at her with wide eyes, his head slightly cocked to the side, Jordan held Maia's hand as if he were afraid she was going to get up and smack sense into Clary, and Simon edged slightly towards her, his eyes concerned.
Emery looked like he was trying not to laugh.
"Look" she lifted her hands, ignoring Emery's chuckle as her feet unconsciously splayed into a sort of stance, as if she were fight against a wall, "I know this sounds crazy, I know a lot of things have been crazy, and I know that I'm sounding like a martyr or something, but if you just listen to me-"
"No."
She froze, the sound of the same word being said by two different voices making her pause. Clary looked to her side, where Chris had crumpled his copy of the Angel's Truth in his fist, his green eyes wide and electric. On the other side of the island in the kitchen, Jace was doing the same, only his expression was feverish. It hadn't been like that a few minutes ago, and as she looked, she saw his arm change again, this time looking like the arm of a mannequin, but if he noticed it he didn't show it. His face lost the feverish touch then, but it still looked disapproving.
"Chris, Jace," she looked to the two of them, everyone else watching on, "Just let me do this."
"No Clary," Chris said, his voice sounding final, more authoritative, commanding. Like an older brother, "No way am I going to let you just throw yourself away like that. Not after what they did to us before."
"It won't be like that, it'll be different," she tried to convince him, but Jace cut her off.
"And how exactly will it be different? Clary, I know this is hard to let sink in, but now you're the number one most wanted person by the Clave since Valentine. Do you think that after they know what you're capable of, they're just going to take you in with open arms and pamper you in jail until your death?" He shook his head angrily, "They'll lock you up in a cell, deprive you of food, and they might even torture you for information on the Angel knows what. They'll do whatever they want with you because they think they have every right to do it. Don't be stupid, you are acting like a martyr."
If it hadn't been for the situation they were in, Clary could have been shocked at the way the two of them were working against her. She would have found in ironic that they were on the same side for something at the wrong time, the way they were both so determined, because of her.
But her mind fixed on phrase that Jace said, Don't be stupid, and her mind raged.
Suddenly angry at both of them, she took a step away, crossing her arms across her chest, her hands digging into the jean shirt that she wore.
"I'm just trying to do the right thing," she argued, "The Clave wants me? Fine, let them have me, and they can give back everyone else."
"And in exchange you get captured?" Chris objected, "This is ridiculous Clary!"
Before she could come up with a good retort, Jace said, "Let's say we do let you turn yourself in, how do we know the Clave will keep their word? How do we know they won't just change their mind about letting them free as soon as they've got a pair of fiery handcuffs around your wrists? You're setting up your own trap!"
In the corner of her eye, she saw the rest of the people in the kitchen moving their heads side to side, as if they were watching a tennis game, keeping up with the argument.
Simon stepped forward, "I actually think it was the start of a good plan."
Now it was Clary's turn to stare along with everyone else at Simon as if he just gave birth, which would have been stranger than if Clary had just done it. Because, you know, he's a boy.
"Um…thanks." She spoke into the silence. "But why?" She was all for her best friend supporting her decisions, but even she had to question why Simon would approve of her giving herself up to the Clave. It worried her, just a little bit.
"Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see you imprisoned," Simon held his hands up in a genuine explanation, making Clary sigh in relief, "Not to mention that I'm concerned for your knack of landing yourself in huge messes, otherwise, it's a good start."
"Gee, thanks Simon," Clary gave him a thumbs up and a broad smile, her voice with as much sarcasm as it could manage. "I can always count on you to support me."
"So you want your best friend to be captured by the Clave?" Alec asked incredulously, along with everyone else. Chris looked like he was ready to murder her poor vampire friend.
Simon looked at them all confusedly, "We are planning on breaking her out later though, right?"
Clary brightened. Of course it would be Simon of all people who would guess what her plan had been. This is what best friends are for, knowing when you're not trying to be a suicidal martyr when trying to save people.
"Oh," Isabelle looked at her, her expression less wild, "That's what you were going to do?"
"Well, yeah," Clary looked at all of them, shooting a smug and angry look at Chris and Jace, both of whom had looked like they had been deflated and no longer in I-am-macho-hear-me-roar mode. "I would have said it too, but it's sort of hard to finish your sentences around here. Did you really think I honestly wanted to be imprisoned for the rest of my life or for however long the Clave would hold me?"
Chris scratched the inside of his wrist, something that Clary did often as well, and gave a smirk. "Sorry about that. Sometimes you worry me." Jace said nothing, but stepped closer to Clary's other side.
"Alright, so assuming we are going to do this," Alec started, "How would we do it? How would we even know if the Clave will be willing for an exchange?"
"Oh, they'll be willing." Clary said, albeit a little confidently, but it was true. "The main reason they captured them is because they want me, so why not give them what they want, hand them some appeasement. As for how we'll go about this…" she trailed off, hoping someone would pick up for her.
"We could fake an attack," Emery spoke from where he sat on a stool peeling a kiwi, "Tell them that if they don't give up the prisoners we'll destroy as much as possible."
Jordan continued, "We could announce it to them, send them a letter or something ahead of time, telling them that if they don't have the prisoners ready to hand over for the exchange we'll initiate the attack."
"Can we stop referring to my parent's and my brother's boyfriend as the 'prisoners' please?" Isabelle suggested. "It makes me feel like we're busting out criminals, which—"she held up a finger"—would be really cool, but they're not."
"I thought we didn't know if they'd been arrested yet?" Maia raised an eyebrow.
Clary tucked back a curl that poked her eye, "We'll just have to assume that they are for now. We can't really know for sure, because even if we try to contact them—"she glanced at Alec, who checked the cupboard only to come up empty handed-"there's a chance they won't answer. Either because they're hiding or really caught, we don't know yet."
"What if they don't take this seriously," Izzy brought up, "When a wanted fugitive just comes out of nowhere and says they'll hand themselves over peacefully, you don't just take them in without thinking whether or not their planning to break your neck." Clary looked up at Izzy, and Izzy cringed, "Bad choice of words?"
"Suspicious or not, the Clave will be curious as well, they won't just pass this up. If you wanted to get their attention, this is definitely a good way to do it." Chris admitted.
"And if they don't take it seriously, if they completely reject the trade, then we'll hit them with everything we've got," Jace imparted, his arms crossed, staring at the island table, gold hair slightly hovering over his eyes as he glanced over at Chris, "Maybe even some of your Demon Shadowhunters and that dark magic you used at the Institute. The fires, you know, the one's that almost burned down the Institute?"
His voice had gone all serious, all of the worry and tension had erased and he was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, his jaw set. All warrior, all tactic. All Shadowhunter. Clary felt bitter sweet at the familiarity of it. She tensed as Jace brought up the fight at the Institute, remembering stepping foot at the front gate, seeing the whole property engulfed in fire, feeling panicked that her brother had come for her.
But those moments felt more like a dream than a memory now, and she had all but openly forgiven, okay maybe not forgiven, but had accepted that Chris, that Sebastian, had done that. What was done was done, and although Clary knew that wasn't reasonable, she had somehow hoped that perhaps if she had forgotten it, everyone else would too.
That sort of self-centered thinking, of course, never worked. Of course they hadn't forgotten it. She could see it in the way that Isabelle clenched her fists, the way that Alec's eyes hardened, and that Jace was too overly calm. They may call him Chris because she does, they may not try to kill him, but to them, he was still Sebastian. It would take a lot of time and healing for them to come to the same conclusion she had.
And time is a factor in life that you can never be too sure of, she thought sadly, Especially not for Shadowhunters.
It was right then, strangely, that Clary finally figured out what she wanted in her life, finally figured out how she wanted her life to fit together. For weeks, she's been struggling with her old life, and her new life. She fought between going back to the Institute, and running off to find Chris. And the thing was, she had done both. She ran off to find Chris, and for months she was nothing but a ghost to those who used to know her, and when she somehow reencountered herself with her friends, even though she hadn't exactly been planning to return with them, she didn't turn them away either. She could have disappeared again, could have kicked them out of her house, could have left once more on her own.
But she didn't, because despite everything, despite all the decisions she's made, all the trouble she's caused and messes she's made, she just can't stay away from family. That's what they were to her. But you know what? So was Chris, quite literally, in fact, and Clary decided that she wanted to be with her family, her whole family. Together.
That would take time though, and much distance, not to mention work. But she could do it, after this whole crazy mess was over, she would work it out. She'd sew her crazy, messed up, family together, one way or another.
After all, after finally finding where she belonged, after finding a life amongst these crazy as hell people, she wasn't just going to give it up. She was going to fight for it, even if she had to hold onto her life with both hands.
Alone in her sudden epiphany, Clary couldn't help the smile that crept onto her face, a lone expression amongst the hard, tensioned faced around her. The smile seemed to be so unexpected, that it broke the dark looks that were going around between Jace, Chris, Alec and Izzy, making everyone look to her again.
Chris looked at her, trying to survey what there was to be smiling about while he was being pressed in from all sides, "What are you smiling for?"
She bit her tongue, killing the smile before she looked like the Joker, "I was thinking about how crazy life is. But that's not important—"she waved her hand away, as if the idea didn't matter,"—what is important is what Jace asked you." She looked at Jace, watching as he uncrossed his arms, looking at her curiously, "do you have more of that magic fire stuff? And can you still call up the Demon Shadowhunters?"
His green eyes gave her one last observation before giving up, "Yeah, I think I can manage that."
"Well, that's that then." She nodded at Jace. "Now's not the time to start arguments. We have plenty of time for killing each other when this is all over."
Jace gave Chris one more poison filled look, before sighing and raising his arms so that he could fold his hands behind his head, much to Clary's pleasure as he said in a completely Jace like tone, "As long as we don't get killed, which of course, I won't, but for the sake of everyone else…"
Alec raised his eyebrows, "So you changed your mind and are going along with this?"
Jace looked at him with one eye closed, shaking his head, his left hand scratching his left arm. Clary frowned. Jace hadn't said anything openly about how he felt about his new arm yet, and although he acted like he was indifferent about its current situation, she knew better. He kept picking at it, scratching it, swinging it unnecessarily around his body, like he wasn't necessarily sure what to do with it.
The golden haired boy wore a large mask, and he knew how to hide behind it well. But Clary also knew how to see behind it; however, if Jace wasn't going to talk about, she shouldn't be the one to ask.
"It's not that I changed my mind," he looked to Clary, his gold meeting her green, "I still don't like the idea of you turning yourself in like that, and would rather it be someone else in your place," his eyes wandered over to Chris for a moment before settling back on her, "but after seeing you fight and handle yourself, I don't see why I should be worried."
He said that, but he still looked like he was extremely reluctant to let her do this. In her mind, she wasn't even particularly concerned about the Clave catching her, it just didn't seem likely, even with all that they knew about her, getting permanently captured was just not an option. But in Jace's mind, it wasn't just her getting caught. It was him losing her again, and she could see why he would want the Clave to get Chris instead. But Clary was not about to let the Clave take Chris, whether it was temporarily or permanently, she didn't care. They were not setting their dirty hands on him ever again. Period.
"Actually Clary," Chris spoke, jarring her, "I agree with Jace. It should be me, they already know I'm here, they know to expect me, and they'll even suspect of me, wouldn't it be best if I were to go as well?"
She rounded on him, words flying from her mouth before her hair even settled, "Absolutely not the last time you were captured they sent you to hell and Raziel knows what they'll do to you this time and we don't know whether they're better prepared for you or not so hell no Christopher I'll be dead before they get you again and it doesn't even matter who goes whether it's you or me it'll get their attention anyway but I don't care I'm going and you're not changing my mind." She took in a deep breath as she realized her lungs were screaming for oxygen, at the same time staring Chris down.
Something moved behind his emerald eyes, and he sighed, "Fine." He raked his hand through his hair, saying it again, "Fine, but just tell us how you plan on getting this done."
She exhaled, speaking easily, "After I get 'caught,' you guys are going to bust me out."
"And how are we going to do that, may I ask?" Simon asked.
Clary walked around towards Emery, who seemed to immediately guess her intentions, giving her a knowing look. She stood next to him, crooking her thumb out towards him, "He'll be my backup. Helps when you've got a millennia old warlock on your side." She glanced sideways at the red headed warlock, "Just make sure the connection doesn't break this time."
Emery gave a wise smile, taking off his baseball cap before twirling it in his fingers and plopping it down onto her wild curls, "No problem little niece. I've got your back."
Adjusting the cap so that her hair wasn't plastered in front of her eyes, she said with her hand tipping the rim up, the cap feeling strangely comforting, "Besides, I've escaped the Clave singlehandedly before, how hard can it be to do it again?"
The way that the atmosphere and tension changed in the room told her that everyone was starting to feel a lot more comfortable with the idea, making Clary release some of the tension that had started to build in her shoulders and neck. Rolling out her arms, just as she would do after a good training session, she pulled the rim of Emery's cap down, just as she'd seen him do, making it create a horizontal line across her vision. The cap magically made her feel more in charge, more in control of her surroundings.
Emery talked to her, "Don't get too attached to it," he winked with a knowing look in his hazel eyes, "I'll want it back." Then he walked out of the kitchen and off into who knows what part of the house. Clary didn't try to stop him, shrugging off Chris's look and ignoring how everyone watched him go.
"So," Simon interrupted the silence that followed Emery's wake, "Assuming that this is a perfect world and that all goes well and that we all come out of this okay and unharmed, what then? What will we do after this is all over?"
"What do you mean by that Si?" Isabelle sat on a stool next to him, leaning into his arm, making Simon swing his arm across her shoulders.
"Well, let's look at the facts guys: We're all fugitives, runaways, pariahs of the Shadow World and will probably be even more after Clary escapes after we've taken their prisoners, um I mean, Maryse, Magnus, etc." he switched tracks as Isabelle shot him a glare, "And after we're all safe from the Clave's clutches, then what? Are we all just going to hang out here and live in Casa Morgenstern forever? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love hanging out with all of you all cozy and stuff, but this place is getting a little too crowded for my liking."
"See?" Jace said to Jordan, "He loves hanging out with me. I knew the guy was secretly in love with me, but that's okay, a lot of people are."
"Where for the love of Earth did you remotely hear me say that at all?" Simon demanded. "I said I liked hanging out here."
"No, you said, and I quote, "I love hanging out with all of you." See? All of me. I told you," he indicated towards Jordan again.
"He did indeed say that," Jordan said, holding his chin in mock speculation.
"Really Jace?" Simon deadpanned, "You're going to do this now?"
"If I don't do it now, then when will I get the chance?"
Clary rubbed her hand across her forehead where the cap rubbed against, ignoring the others as Chris watched, amused at the conversation, and while Isabelle played along with Jace and Jordan, crying out that Simon better not be gay, even though being gay was perfectly fine, given that she had a brother who was gay, but he better not have played her like that.
And usually Clary would have listened to them, and probably would have stepped in and stop Jace's antics before they got out of hand, which she would eventually, but Simon had poised a good question.
"After we're done," she directed towards the crowd of people, "That's it. And I agree with Simon, this house is getting a little too full for what it's actually made to accommodate for. After this, we'll have to go our separate ways."
That caught their attention, Maia and Jordan looking attentive, Simon surprised, and Jace with his muscles tense again, even his mannequin arm looking harder than before.
She carried on, "We can't all hide together. As okay as it was in the Institute, this place is fairly smaller than the huge castle/church that we're all used to. Not to mention that it would be sort of awkward, it wouldn't be long before we butted heads against each other."
What she didn't need to speak aloud was the fact that Maryse and Robert had yet to see Chris in person, and as hard as it was to explain to Isabelle the Chris situation, explaining to Maryse how the man who killed her son is not to be murdered is something that Clary wouldn't be able to sort out in a few days. She needed time, and with Big Momma Lightwood, a lot of space.
She looked down at her wrists, and on a whim, she made the runes that she kept as a part of herself appear onto her skin, running a finger down the first one, the old archaic styled S in the center of the vertical eye, the tiny letter C in the corner. After a second of marveling it, she made it disappear again, and when she looked up, she caught Chris's eyes, and she looked back.
"We'll have to go into hiding," whether she said this to him, or the whole group, it wasn't necessarily known.
"Aren't we already hiding?" Alec pointed out. "That's the whole point of this house, right?"
"You're right, the whole point of this house is to hide in," she admitted, turning to face him, "But that's going to be hard to do when I'm no longer using this house to live in."
"Clary," Chris warned.
"I'm not running away," she assured him, "I just don't think I should be messing your guy's life more than I already have."
"You have messed it up," Izzy said blatantly, making Jace shoot her a look of steel, but she stared back at him until he frowned, and she looked back to Clary, "But just because you've made our life a little more weirder than usual for a Nephilim doesn't mean you have to go away."
"What about this house?" Alec asked, "Are you just going to let it disappear somewhere?"
"Of course not," she told him, "I'm letting you guys have it, the Lightwoods."
When all three of them stared at her, she added, "Consider it as a sort of exchange, payment, compensation, call it what you will."
"Clary you don't need to give us anything—" Jace began but Clary didn't let him. This was what she was doing for them. She needed to do this. She looked to Chris suddenly aware of the fact that she wasn't just giving up her house, but was giving up his as well. But he didn't look upset when she looked at him, in fact, he looked like it was perfectly fine with him. She remembered when he had told her that all that he owned wasn't just his, but it was theirs. Clary had every right to all that he owned. Not to mention that she's been living in the house a lot longer than he has, meaning it was more hers than his. She felt a twinge of sadness at giving the house away, but not a lot. Had Chris not been back, she would have been extremely reluctant to give it away, because the house was all that she had left of him, but now that he was back, any place could be home.
The brief look in his eyes as she looked to him reflected exactly what she was thinking. Wherever she was, he'd follow.
He nodded.
"Keep the house." She stated firmly. "As soon as this is all over, belongs to the Lightwoods, and I'll tell that to Maryse personally if I have to."
"We owe you all that much." Chris said in a way that was final. "You won't have a home to return to anyway, not with the Clave around. So you might as well consider this place as well a sanctuary as any."
Clary didn't know whether the Lightwoods would want anything from them, but it was better to give it to them than to assume they didn't want it. And if they ultimately didn't want it…
"Maia," she said, hurriedly, "Jordan, you guys—"
"It's okay Clary," Maia smiled, exposing a little too much of her canine, "I doubt you've got another house up your sleeve, so don't worry about it."
"You guys could stay with us," Isabelle told them. "I don't care what my parents say." Alec nodded along with his sister.
"Nah, don't push them," Jordan waved his hand through the air, putting the other one around Maia's hip, "Maia and I may be evil in the Clave's eye, but we can find a pack of acceptable werewolves somewhere in the world who'll take us. Or maybe we'll go on a road trip, start our own pack. Hey, babe—"he told Maia,"—don't you wonder what Australia is like this time of the year?"
"As a matter of fact, I do." She answered. "But if we're starting a pack, who'll be the alpha?"
Clary remembered Luke telling her that in order to be the leader of a group of werewolves, you needed to challenge the alpha. Luke had killed to get that position, and everyone in the room knew that's how it went with werewolves. Maia smiled sweetly.
"Oh you know we can rock paper scissor it, or flip a coin, or you can be alpha, whatever works for you." Jordan said a little too airily.
"I like the way you think babe," Maia settled into him, making him make a face of relief towards the room, and she turned back to Clary, "Well, that settles our future."
"You sure?" Clary asked, "Because if not—"
"You are not about to ruin my chances of being an alpha in Australia, are you Fray?"
Clary giggled, "I guess not." Then she looked up and caught the look of her one and only Daylighter, "Simon?"
Simon shook his head before she could say anything else, "You don't have to worry about me at all Clary. I'm your awesome kick butt vampire Daylighter best friend, and I've been way too lucky before to have my luck run out anytime soon. I don't know why, but I don't think that luck will run out any time soon."
She smiled, but on the inside she still cradled the box of worry she held for Simon. No matter what he said, she would always worry for him, because he was wanted not just because he was her best friend, but because of whom he was too. She'd look out for him, whether he knew or not.
"What about you Clary?"
She flicked her head to the side, seeing Jace leaning against the kitchen island countertop, his elbows perched on the edge. His eyes burned into her, but she couldn't read the emotion there. That startled her for a moment, because she thought that she was at the point where she could read Jace Lightwood like a book.
"After I break out of the Clave and everyone's safe and where they need to be, I won't be sticking my head above water for a while," she said to him, and then turned toward the cupboards, absently pulling out a world globe, setting it on the island and giving it a spin. She pressed her forefinger onto it to stop it from spinning, and her finger landed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. "I'll contact you guys, whenever I can find you."
"You don't need to disappear like that." Jordan objected, "Going off on your own again, you don't need to do that. I know you don't want to put us in harm, but you honestly don't have to worry about that. In fact, you're more than welcome to be the first non-werewolf in our pack."
"You could come with us to Australia…" Maia teased.
"Or you could stay here." Jace said, but she was still smiling from what Jordan had said. Part of their pack, is that what they all were? Not family, but so tight knit and honor bound that they might as well be?
"I won't be alone, you can count on that," she glanced at Chris, who smiled a half smile
"Where will you go?" Simon asked, and she shrugged.
"I have a couple of places in mind, but nowhere definite, wherever the wind blows me, I guess. Just liked this house, I'll go wherever won't get me caught." She smiled wide, "Besides, I've made my fair share of friends around the world," she thought of Ghayth, the little boy she befriended in Saudi Arabia, "I'll never be completely without help."
"Of course you won't," Isabelle assured her, her tone firm. "Don't hesitate to ask for help Clary, because I swear if you try to tough it out, I will pull you back here by your curly red hair and super demon glue you to a chair."
"I don't agree with the whole super glue part, but Izzy's right," Alec said, "This is your house. You can be here whenever you want, whenever you need it. Stay in touch, you know Isabelle's and my number."
She did in fact, it just wasn't saved in her new phone, which was up in her room somewhere. Clary hardly used it, she had no one but the people who were supposed to help her find Chris to call. And Ghayth. She'd have to give the little guy a call soon.
"Thanks guys, but in all honesty, no matter how much I've done, I don't think your mom would want to see me. After all the trouble I've caused, I think that it doesn't matter whether I escape from the Clave or not. Maryse would ground me for life. Whether I'm her daughter or not."
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By the time Clary had lured them back to the topic of their exchange with the Clave, going over the details of Clary's escape more thoroughly, making sure she'd escape no matter what, Clary was tired of standing and sitting and walking around the kitchen. She loved her house, she really did, and she would miss it when the time came to leave it to the Lightwoods (if they really wanted it), but the fact that there were no windows except for in the bedrooms and training turret really made you feel trapped in the place, that rooms around her looked the same for hours non-end, not a ray of sunshine to proclaim the time of the day, it really made her feel claustrophobic sometimes.
"Where are we anyway?" she asked them, having not stepped foot outside the house since she woke up or had any time to check on the little mirror in her room that can tell her the location of the house.
"Europe." Chris answered for all of them, "I checked earlier today."
"Which part of Europe?" Jace questioned further, and Clary understood why. Idris was in Europe, and with their luck the house decided to just dump them right outside Idris's borders.
"We're in Spain," Chris replied, and Clary had to commend him for acting normally around Jace. "On a mountain called Mount Calamorro."
"Isn't that a tourist mountain?" Alec inquired. Clary let them do the discussing, given that her geography wasn't the best so Mount Calamorro might as well be a sand hill in the middle of a jail house for all she knew.
"The glamours around the house should prevent anyone from stepping near the house, we should be fine." He reached into a bowl of fruit that was on the bar separating the kitchen and living room, pulling out an apple
"Anyone up for going outside?" he smirked through a mouthful of apple.
Everyone exited out of the kitchen as Clary made the door appear, turning on her inner Sebastian and making the door materialize on the wall.
I'll have to change that, she thought, Or I'll ask Chris to change it. The Lightwoods won't be able to open the door if it only opens to us.
Opening the door to let everyone pass by, she was the last to exit. A nice cool breeze blew her hair back, and the first thing that she made out was that the sun was setting, lighting the world around her in its dusk glow. She must have been out for a large part of the morning, for it to have gotten this late. It was almost nighttime.
She stretched her arms up above her head, leaving the door to the house open. Being inside for so long made Clary feel cramped, so she stretched her arms to the sides as well. Glancing about, she saw the others do the same, as Simon had perched atop a loose rock and was rolling out his shoulders, and Isabelle stretched her arms to the sky.
"Guys, we should have a barbeque," Maia suggested, "It's the perfect time to do it."
From where Clary stood, just beyond the threshold of the house, Clary could see a beautiful horizon. The sun was setting in the west, just to her right, and she was able to see the peaks of other mountains to her sides. They were very high up on Mount Calamorro, but she could still see more of it behind her. The house had sort of pressed itself into an overhang of rock, fitting into a large alcove, the mountain peak towering over her. Thirty feet from the front of the house the ground they stood on dropped off, and beyond that, Clary could see a city, but it was so small from where she stood that it looked like a child's Lego town. Beyond the city though, there was a vast expanse of water.
"This mountain is in Benalmádena," she overheard Chris tell Jordan a few feet to her left, as they both stared off into the horizon, "It's one of Spain's most southern cities. They say that if you look at horizon on a clear day from the top of Mount Calamorro, you can see all the way across the ocean to Africa."
"Whoa, did you hear that Maia?" Jordan awed.
"Well, I don't see anything now." Jace pointed out. "I see ocean, ocean, and, wait a second, oh, never mind. It's just more ocean."
"I said on the clearest of days. It's too dark now."
This was all very interesting, it really was, and Clary's artists mind was so in awe her fingers were urging her to take a hold of her Prisma color pencils and draw the whole scene out that instant, but her mind had other ideas.
Clary walked off to the right of the house, wondering away from everyone, just wanting to let her mind be on a free leash for a moment. Walking around until the little camp ground they found was no longer in sight, she started to climb up, using foot holes and grabbing onto ledges that mundanes wouldn't have been able to make out.
She didn't know what she was doing, she only knew that it's been a while since she's been on her own, what with the suddenness of everyone coming together, that she hasn't been able to take a moment on her own yet. She spent three months on her own, and while that was lonesome, the human body was a fickle thing. It didn't know if it wanted to be alone, or in company.
Being out her really opened up her mind and let her think about things, but without dwelling on them too much. Clary felt like sometimes if she was too stressed out about something, she had to take a step back, get away from everything. That way, she look at the problem with a cool head, feeling slightly detached from her own problems.
Do you ever hear people complaining about their lives, and you're just listening to them complain and complain, and the whole time while you're being sympathetic, you can't help but think of ways to fix their problems, but when you suggest them the other person just rejects them and says something along the lines of "It's not that easy"? Trying to come up with a solution to someone else's problems are always easy, but solving your own? Those are the worst.
This is why Clary didn't choose until she was away from everyone and working her body by climbing up the mountain to let all her problems suddenly engulf her mind. But this was different, she calm, she was collected. The thoughts didn't cascade over her, making her feel suffocated like they would have had she been in her room all on her. They were carefully organized, floating about her like the breeze that blew her hair around her shoulders as she reached up for another hand hold.
Only then did Clary assess the problems she had, both the new ones, and the old ones.
Old problem: Chris.
He used to be missing, but now is back on Earth. Clary felt very disappointed that she had not completed the promise to herself, that she had not been the one to get Chris back, but she supposed that beggars can't be choosers. Chris was back, safe and sound, and she was completely satisfied with that.
New Problem: Incorporating Chris into her life.
Before, she had been able to be with him because she assumed that no one would ever see her again, but now that her family was okay was her, how would she convince them the same of Chris? Now that she thought about it, this was necessarily a new problem at all, it's always been around. So she'd just have to cross her fingers with this one and go along as she goes.
Old problem: Staying away from the Clave. This was old because now she had to seek them out in order to get back the others. Hopefully they were okay.
New Problem: Escape the Clave efficiently.
For all the confidence she kept putting up for everyone, Clary had to admit that the thought of going back to the Clave had her knees trembling, as well as her fists, because she had no intention of getting caught. She may have been able to convince everyone else about what she could do, but she would never be able to convince herself. Plus they had made a good point earlier on. She may have been able to escape last time, but that was because they didn't know what she was capable of. Now they knew, and she doubted they'd underestimate her this time.
New Problem: Jace
At this point, Clary had to take a deep breath and haul herself onto a short ledge so that she could press her fingers to her temples, her hands running through her tangled hair. Glancing up, she saw wires running from the base of the mountain somewhere far below her to the peak of the mountain above her. Probably to carry trolleys of people to the top without having to climb the actual mountain.
Clary had absolutely no idea what she was going to do with Jace. Jace was not a dog. Jace was not a toy that she could just get bored of. She can't just leave him. Especially not after they had just made up a few days ago. It wasn't fair to Jace. But then, this whole thing is not fair to any of them, not to her, not to Jace, and not to Chris.
I'm an idiot, Clary thought to herself.
She never would have thought of herself as the sort of girl who dragged around two guys. What sort of person was she becoming? This wasn't what you did to people, stringing their hearts up and messing with their emotions like some kind of play thing. These were people.
But it was precisely the fact that they were people that made it all the harder.
You don't want to hurt them, you can't help but imagine what sort of pain you'll cause them, because either way, somebody's going to end up losing.
And in both ways, Clary will lose too.
One or the other, I'll be hurt too.
"Ughhh!" she groaned, her bubble of calm and collected popping, "Why is this so frustrating?!"
The sound of pebble scattering down the slope was the only give away that there was someone following her before she heard, "Is that the sound of teenage angst I hear?"
Peering down from the ledge she sat at, Clary saw Simon several feet below her. Now that she stopped to look down, she realized just how much she's actually climbed up. Quite a bit, actually. "Have you been tailing me?"
"Only for the past ten minutes, but yes, yes I have." He came right next to her, and Clary thought about scooting over on her already tiny ledge, but Simon seemed to find some foot hole or something that was too small for even her to see. Must be vampire strength or something, because according to what she was seeing, there should have been nothing holding Simon up onto the slope. He seemed to just be standing, as if some hand were keeping him up. "Did you think that just because you leave without saying anything, no one will notice? I decided to come follow you to nettle your two boyfriends who tried to come follow you instead."
"I wasn't aware I had two boyfriends," Clary said defensively. They weren't her boyfriends. They were her boy troubles.
"Now, I know you never yelled at me for dating, well, I wouldn't say dating exactly, but for leading on both Maia and Isabelle at the same time, and I'm really grateful that you were an awesome friend at that time, so as you're friend now, I just have to say, really?" Simon held both palms up, one eyebrow raised.
"They're not my boyfriends!" She firmly repeated.
"Really? Could've fooled me," Simon teased. Now he somehow sat next to her, not on the ledge but on the slope, elbows on his knees. "The way they were both staring at you about eighty seven percent of the time we were in there, and the other thirteen percent they'd growled at each other like lions over a meal, even an idiot with a serious intellectual deficiency could have read the situation."
"Since when are you a mathematician and able to calculate the exact percent of the time that someone was staring at me? You do realize this means you were staring at them the whole time, right?"
"Clary, everyone was looking at you guys. Kind of hard not to. You guys are like a soap opera. And about those calculations, I will admit I was wrong. They both stared at you eighty seven percent of the time, but I'm pretty sure Jace used two percent to look at himself in some shiny surface." Simon pretended to be doing math on his fingers before saying, "And you spent sixty seven percent of the time trying not to hurl yourself into the arms of one of them."
Clary's cheeks heated. "I was not doing that!"
"Okay, over calculation." He admitted, "Only forty three percent of it. And they were staring at you like two lions fighting over a wounded gazelle."
"Did you just call me a gazelle?"
"No, I called you a wounded gazelle, there's a difference."
She smacked him upside the head, but they were both laughing. However, Clary's laughter died out soon. It made her feel uncomfortable that the situation was that easy to read back there. Not to say anything against Simon, but if he could read the environment like that, there was no doubt everyone else did too.
Oh boy.
"So," Simon said after a moment, "What are you going to do?"
He didn't need to specify, she knew exactly what he meant.
She opened her mouth, waiting for assuring words to come, but after ten seconds of nothing but silence, she closed it. Drawing her legs close to her chest, she said the only honest thing she could. "I don't know."
There was another sound of pebbles falling down the mountain, but Clary ignored it.
"You know I'm with you in whatever decision you make, right Clary?" Simon said in a bright voice that made Clary glad that she ever started talking to the awkward boy when she was five years old.
"Of course I do."
"Right then. So don't feel bad about whatever you choose, because it's your decision Clary, whatever makes you happy." He stood up, looking like he was about to go down the mountain again, but he turned back to her one last time.
"If it makes you feel any better, being possibly one of the only male role model available, I already had a good old, man to man talk with Chris, considering that Luke isn't her to do it for you, so…do what you got to do," and before Clary could make sense of he just said, he finished, "Really Clary, your own brother." Then he burst into laughter at Clary's gaping, tomato red face.
Then he left by jumping from where he stood, and as Clary leaned over her ledge to see him reach the bottom where she first started climbing, she shouted, "Wait! What do you mean by that Simon! Simon! Si-"
She paused when she saw Jace about teen feet below her, staring up at her face as he climbed. His left arm seemed to have gone chameleon and was now mimicking the cracked stone like mountain. His golden eyes, still reminding her of a predator to this day, staring up into hers.
"Hey." She told him.
"Hey yourself."
Clary didn't know why, but instead of scooting over on the ledge so that he could sit, because she doubted he could stand like Simon did, she kept climbing upward, until she found a big enough ledge for both of them, with room to spare. Maybe because Clary didn't want to afford for it to get awkward between them in such a small space, maybe because she wasn't ready to be held under his stare at such a close proximity, she didn't know. All she knew was that she wasn't ready for this. She'd never be ready for this sort of thing. Which is why she needed all the breathing room she could get.
Stretching her limbs out, she waiting for him to clamber over the ledge and stand with her.
"Trying to escape on us again?" He teased as he sauntered over to where she stared at the sun setting.
"Something like that. It was getting kind of crowded and I needed a bit of me time." She answered, "Sometimes my brain gets all 'Ughh people…' and needs to get away for a bit of a refresher."
"Then have no fear, nothing refreshes the mind better than your daily dose of Jace, my presence will soothe you." He smirked.
"Oh, I feel so soothed right now," Clary laughed, but couldn't help the thought that his presence did soothe her. His presence plus Chris's presence though, made her nervous.
They stared off into the sunset some more, before Clary could pose the question, "So how's your arm?"
With everything that's happened in the past day, there hasn't been much time for everything to completely sink in to everyone's mind. Clary would have thought that this whole thing would be so stressful to him, the idea of losing his arm causing him to go up in a panic. The only logical reason for him to have accepted it so easily can only be because there wasn't time to freak out over it.
This reason must have been true, because for the first time since he woke up earlier at the sight of his limb, Jace looked completely and utterly perplexed. His right hand reached for his elbow, holding it to his chest. Clary wondered if his arm felt different too, if it felt like he had rock for an arm, instead of skin and bone. She was amazed out how the arm was still up for human capabilities, like before, when it was in the form of a mannequin, it still bended at the wrist and elbows, instead of snapped like it should have.
Holding it up to the dying light, he frowned at it, "I don't know. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure whether or not I would have preferred to just lose it, instead of having this grotesque thing as my arm."
"It can't be that bad," as soon as she said it she regretted it. Jace may take pride in his scars, but the loss of a limb? That was something else. "Look on the bright side, if you're in a fight and someone tries to stab you or something, there's the chance that your arm will be titanium and you can deflect it. Maybe you can learn to control it, change it into what you want instead of random metamorphosis."
"Maybe," the possibility momentarily lightened something in his look, hope, possibly, but then it went away. "Or maybe it could be about as useful as a noodle of pasta and be completely chopped off."
"That's why you should learn to control it! Like right now, it's the same texture as the ground we're standing on, maybe the changes are triggered by your thoughts, something subconscious. You can learn how to change it using your own will." She was starting to make sense even to herself, even though she had only started to say it for Jace's sake, but the more she went into it, the more she believed it, making her more confident in her words.
This seemed to start to sink into Jace as well, for he had that look in his eye again. "You could be right, my fever spiked again a few minutes ago while I was about to climb, and I remember looking at the ground, testing how strong it was. Next thing I knew my arm was of the same material."
"Do the fevers bother you that much?" she asked.
"Not really, I feel them, but it's not like a regular fever. I only really start to get hot when it's about to change my arm, but that's only for a few seconds, then it's gone. Sort of reminds me of when I had the Heavenly Fire within me. It was in me, but didn't really hurt me." He explained.
"Reminds me of when I had the runes I made on me," she said absently, watching his dirt like fingers move under the orange sunlight, "The way every so often it has to move ahead, and how it's really painful whenever it happens. Only mine eventually ended."
She felt strangely, okay with talking to Jace about her runes. She'd explained the concept of how her rune worked to everyone in general, explaining how it had worked like what it was, an ordinary rune. But that wasn't true. It wasn't an ordinary rune to Clary. To her, it was something much more intimate, something that allowed her to see, feel, do s someone else would. It was an Empathy rune, only it took empathy on a whole other scale. The only person that she had spoken to about it in more detail had been Chris.
"Does it really hurt that much?" Jace questioned her. He had turned to her, the ends of his golden curls looking like they were set on fire, the reflecting light illuminating what Clary always thought was inside of Jace. Pure, blinding fire.
She had to honest, or else that fire would burn her up. Taking a breath, still facing the sunset, she said, "Yeah, it really does." Her hand skimmed the top of her wrist, rubbing over where the rune would be. "Every twenty four hours, until the rune is complete, I would feel blinding shocks of pain everywhere. It would even hurt anyone who came into contact with me. But I guess that's the price you pay when you try to be anyone but yourself."
"Do you still have your ring?"
The question came out of nowhere so suddenly that Clary had to turn to face him to display her reaction. The ring?
"The Morgenstern family ring. The one I gave you. Do you still have it?" Something behind his voice seemed to be saying something else. Something more important than the ring.
As for the ring, proof that she still had it laid against her chest now, and she was almost surprised to see it beneath her shirt, the chain still wrapped around her neck. Clary had never taken it off, never, and she didn't know whether she should have been shocked at the fact that she sort of forgot it was there, this whole time. All these months, even when she had been with Chris, the ring had always been there, and she'd never taken it off.
Clary was surprised they hadn't used it to track her somehow, but she assumed it was because they must have thought she wouldn't be as stupid to just leave it on her like that. Guess they were wrong.
She pulled it out, letting it catch a glint of light, letting it shine in her eye, observing the M that could also be a W. Technically, this ring was hers. She was a true Morgenstern, she or Chris should be the true holders of the ring, not Jace. Clary had never considered herself a Morgenstern, but what else could she be?
The thought was striking to her. She was not a Fray, that was a fake name that didn't exist. Her mother said she was a Fairchild, but she didn't feel deserving of the name, not after how she mistreated her mother like that. By law, she was Morgenstern. She used to hate that, hate that she was attached the Valentine like that, hated that in the future, people would refer to her as Valentine's daughter, the one that followed in his footsteps.
But now, the name no longer felt like it was Valentine's shadow over her. It felt hers.
She was a Morgenstern, both Chris and her. The last ones.
But this ring meant more to Jace than it did to her. While it represented her newfound acceptance for who she was, the true owner is the one who gave it to her.
"Do you want it back?" she asked quietly, the ring dangling between them.
Jace immediately shook his head, "I've said it before, I don't want that ring, but I can't bear to just destroy it. That's why I gave it to you. It's yours Clary, I never want it back, I just wanted to know if you still had it, if you-"he stopped, and then started again, his voice gone in that serious voice he only ever reserved for her, "If you still want it."
Clary immediately picked up on what he was really saying. It wasn't just the ring. It had never been just the ring that they were talking about. The looped metal lay in her palm, almost like an accusation on her skin, suddenly weighing heavier than before, so much that it completely boggled her as to why she had forgotten it was there all this time. The ring symbolized more than just the owner, because even though it was made for a Morgenstern, the person who had given it to her was not one, but he had given it to her as if he were giving her his soul. This ring represented them as a whole, everything they'd been through, all the hard times they've come across, all the hardships they've climbed over.
And now they were climbing past another, making it around one last peak, and he was asking her if she still wanted it, still wanted to keep going.
"I don't know if I deserve it anymore." She whispered, her hand balling around the ring and as much of the chain as she could grip without choking herself, "I don't know."
Something pressed at the back of her eyes, and she opened them wide, taking a deep breath. She would not cry. She would absolutely not tear up.
"I think you still deserve it." His voice made her bring her face back up to his, the sun's last dying rays creating shadows across his cheekbones, highlighting all the sharp angles of his body. His eyes seemed to glow brighter now than ever, but she didn't know if that was because of the light, the situation they were in, or because his fever was building up again. "You'll always deserve it, Clary."
Clary bit her tongue, the pain clearing her tears before they filled her vision. Why was she getting so damned emotional!
"You have the right over that ring, Clary," he drew close to her, putting his hand lightly over her balled up fist, and his touch made her loosen her grip, presenting the ring with her hand palm up. He took it from her hand and gently placed the ring on her chest, moving the chain around so that it was perfectly on her breastbone. "Whatever choice you make of it, it's yours to do."
A ping went through her mind, and she temporarily lost sight of things. An ultimatum. He had given her an ultimatum. He had laid down the future of their lives in her hands, and along with the ring, everything they had ever been. All up to her.
She didn't know whether this was the nicest thing anyone's ever done, or the cruelest. Clary couldn't help but think that she should never be given this much responsibility, this much control over anyone's lives. Because that was what Jace just did, laid down the future of his life for her to choose. To choose whether or not she'd be a part of it.
"You shouldn't be giving me this much responsibility." She voiced aloud, her voice sounding surprisingly normal for the way she felt inside, "I could end up doing more bad than good."
"I trust you to do what you do better than anyone else would," he said. He was still standing close to her, his chine just above her forehead. Had she gotten taller? "I know what you have to do, giving yourself up to the Clave and all, and I would have done the same thing."
He wrapped his arms around her, and after a second, she wrapped her arms around him as well.
"I don't want to lose you," he whispered.
I don't want to lose you either, she thought. She didn't want to lose Jace, she still loved him, of course she did. But she just didn't know if she still loved him like before, exactly like before.
Things had been so great before, they'd gotten along again, like best friends, joking and having fun. She should have known it couldn't be like that forever.
Their future was either with each other, or without.
That was when Clary put her foot down. Quite literally.
Jace sprung back, his foot yanking out from where Clary had stomped down on him.
"What was-?" he started, bewildered, but Clary cut him off, a fire suddenly brewing within her.
"You said you understood me." She stated plainly.
"I do! Wait," he stared at her, "When did I say this?"
"A few days ago, back when you avoided me like I had some weird disease. That night that I thought you had accepted me for what I was doing. Had accepted both me and my love for Chris."
The word 'love' seemed to jolt something in him, and Clary didn't stop now, "You said you'd stay by my side, always, even if you had to share it with my brother, and I know it's horrible that I'm holding this against you, but here you are, telling me that's I either choose you completely, or not at all. By the Angel, Jace!"
"Clary, I thought this is what you wanted, to make a decision yourself," Jace said, not taking a step near her.
"Decide for myself whether or not I want to be with you? Whether or not I should just dump you or not? I can't make those types of decisions Jace!" She screeched. "This is your choice, not mine; I won't decide your life for you. I won't make a decision that could possibly hurt you more than I already have."
She walked to the edge of the ledge, where the sun was only just barely peeking over the horizon, the world behind her already cloaked in shadows.
Turning around so that her back faced the sun, she said, "It's your choice, not mine. I reject your ultimatum." She put her hand over the ring on her chest, "I'll always keep this, always. But I won't make this decision for you, this is for you and only you to make."
"And what if I don't make the right choice!" Jace looked at her, legitimately concerned, one hand running through his hair, "What if I do something wrong?"
Clary looked at him, truly looked at him, and found that she was smiling, "We all do wrong things. The Angel knows I've done enough of them to last a lifetime. That doesn't mean I regret them though."
"So what am I supposed to do?" he asked, his golden eyes alight with the need to know.
"Do the first thing that comes to mind, and don't listen to the voice in your head that tells you otherwise." Clary looked down from the ledge. It was getting dark really fast now that the sun had set. She could see the small flames from the barbeque that the others had started. "We should probably head back. The others will get worried."
"I'll meet you down there soon, I'll just," looking back, she Jace staring up into the sky, not at her. Staring into the stars that were just becoming visible in the darkness above, "I'll just stay here to think a bit."
"Okay," she said. Then she jumped off the ledge, the wind blowing her hair back, the ground below her completely invisible, until she turned on her inner Sebastian, and then her instincts kicked in, her body knowing what to do, and her eyesight seeing everything.
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Her boots crunched the ground beneath her as she stepped into the circle of fire in front of the house, near the ledge where they could see the city lights turning on for the night below them. The moon hung over them, crescent like a toenail, suspended above all of them like some sort of guardian.
The group had dug a into the ground, and had even dug seats into the ground, where they all held various things like marsh mellows and pieces of meat with sticks over the fire in the center of the circle. There was talking, not very much, but no one looked upset or worried or out of comfort. Even Alec chewed contently on a s'more. Chris was holding two sticks of what looked like chicken legs over the fire, letting them roast, and he was conversing lightly with Maia, of all people.
"Of course, Valentine never actually fed me, I had to learn how to get food on my own. But since I'm not very skilled at the culinary arts, roasting is the best of my abilities." He handed one of the sticks out to Jordan, who sniffed it before taking a bite into it.
"Well these are a damned delicious chicken legs, I'll give you that," Maia smiled through her own leg, wiping at juice that was on the corner of her mouth.
"I'll take your word for it Maia, and order one of those chicken legs. I'm starving," Clary said as she approached them. "You know, I don't recall ever eating something made by Chris. I'm jealous, you're the first one."
Chris's hair reflected the curling of the flames, his pale head looking extra bright in the light. She sat down on the edge of the pit, her feet where the seat that was dug out was.
"Clary, have you seen Jace?" Isabelle asked. She was sitting on the other side of the pit with Alec and Simon. Emery must have stayed inside.
"Oh, he should be—"
"I'm right here." Clary turned her head to see Jace a few feet behind them, "Is that s'mores I see?"
Clary felt Chris's gaze flicker from her to Jace, and she said nothing as she slipped into the pit, sitting where everyone else was and taking the piece of chicken leg that Chris offered her. Holy Raziel, it did look good.
"I don't remember you making me anything other than cereal, you know?" Clary said as she bit into it. Mother of taste buds, Clary thought she found the Holy Grail for deliciousness.
"But it was pretty good cereal though."
"Sure, if there was a competition for best made cereal, you would have won second."
"And who would have won first?" Chris inquired, his mouth in a half smile.
"Alec would have," Isabelle answered for him, making all of them turn toward her in suspicious. Even Alec paused in his s'more. "What? Obviously none of you have ever been hung over and need a major pick up in the morning. My god Alec," she looked to her brother, "What did you put in my cornflakes that day?"
"Hope, determination, and a whole lot of fear that Mom would catch you looking like a rat that's just been drug out of the sewer." Alec answered, his expression of that of someone not knowing how they did something, but it worked anyway.
"I remember that night," Jace reminisced, "That was the night we hunted down those faerie drug dealers. That was one hell of a night."
"It was also the first time Izzy ever got drunk." Alec said.
"And certainly not the last." Jordan said, making Izzy shoot him a look.
"I don't know what I did to your cereal, but it got you feeling better in about two minutes so, I guess it worked." Alec shrugged.
"I think I remember you running around the kitchen," Jace said, his hands already working on crafting a s'more. He was acting very nonchalant for the conversation that went on not two minutes ago. Clary didn't know whether or not to worry about how Jace hadn't taken much time to ponder what it was he was going to do in the end.
It's not your problem anymore, she thought hastily, It's his decision now.
She shrugged off Chris's questioning glance, asking for another chicken leg as Jace continued his version of the story, "There were dozens of bottles crammed onto the counter, not to mention that you were brewing God knows how much tea on the stove. It smelled like an herbalist store, my nose was bombarded by all the smells. You would have thought Alec was creating the elixir of life, or reviving Frankenstein."
"I thought we were talking about Isabelle?" Chris asked honestly.
Dead silence followed after Chris spoke, Clary could hear crickets all the way from the bottom of the mountain. Isabelle's face was slowly turning red.
Then Maia busted out laughing, "Holy Crap," she said between breaths, "He just called you Frankenstein!"
Maia's laugh was like a first domino to fall in a line, and suddenly they all doubled over in laughter, minus Isabelle and Chris, who stared at Chris with a fury, but not like before, where it was full of deep impenetrable hatred, but just normal Izzy hate, and that made Clary smile all the more.
Chris only laughed when Clary caught his eye, her hand held in front of her mouth, as if to catch her laughter with it, his green eyes shining in the light. Even Isabelle eventually cracked a smile and settled against Simon. The scene was so perfect that it made Clary wish that she could make a rune that would cause moments to last forever.
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She doesn't remember how long they were up that night. All she could remember was that they had started telling each other stories, stories of how Simon and Clary got in trouble once while they were sophomores in high school because some stupid football player had broken Simon's glasses so Clary had dumped her milk carton down the guy's pants, stories of how Jordan once gone with a pack of wolves and had traveled to about half the states in America, all in one night, stories of how Jace, Isabelle and Alec had to sneak into the Institute late one night before Alec was even fifteen and how Maryse would have caught them had they not bribed Church into not hissing when they jumped in through a window.
"How do you bribe a cat?" Simon asked. "Do you like, offer it tuna? Give it an extra life? Help it and its companions plot world domination?"
"Church is a weird cat," Isabelle had said, "And old. I don't even know how long he's been there."
"Mom says he's been there as long as she can remember." Alec said, "She thinks he's enchanted or something."
"Maybe he's really taking care of those nine lives," Clary pointed out.
"I hate cats." Maia said blatantly.
"Well duh, you're a—"Jace started.
"One word about my werewolf-ness and you'll be sleeping in the ocean, Lightwood." Maia growled.
"Actually, I'm a Herondale."
They had tossed their chicken leg bones into the fire and then pushed back all the dirt that they'd dug out and filled in the pit before turning in for bed. On the edge of Clary's mind, she could feel that tomorrow would bring a whole new mess of things, that tomorrow could mean a change in everything, but for now, she just wasn't up for worrying out of her mind about it.
Everyone had gone to their separate rooms, Jordan, Maia, Chris, Clary and Jace heading towards the stairs for the rooms in the hallway, Alec setting up the inflatable bed in the living room, and Izzy and Simon sneaking behind the hidden room behind the television. Clary couldn't sleep though, even though it had been getting late, and she paced her room, her actual room, not the little hidden one that she's been inhabiting for the past three months.
She had pulled out some of her pencils and sketchpads to draw with, but nothing came to mind, and all she succeeded in was drawing lines and circles, which, while very abstract, didn't really do much to her mind. At one point she had gotten out of her room, planning on going to Chris's room and see if she could sleep there, but then she saw the door to Jace's room, and something in her told her to turn back and climb into her own covers. She wouldn't do that. She wouldn't climb into the bed of one guy even if it was her brother, after having that sort of conversation with another.
She lay down on her back in her bed, staring at the shaft of moonlight that splayed across the ceiling through the open curtained window. She moved her hands in the light, letting the shadows move around silently. She must have drifted off at some point though, because she remembered waking up suddenly again, the ray of moonlight in a completely different place.
The house must have moved again, she yawned as she curled in on herself, letting her mind go back to sleep.
It didn't matter where their house was anyway, because she would be able to draw a Portal to where they needed to go anyway. Tomorrow, this house would be her refuge once more, and after that, only the Angel knew.
Tomorrow, everything would be finalized. Tomorrow would be the decision that finished everything.
But for tonight, Clary slept.
Lacie: HOLY STARS SPADES AND ACES. I'm finally on summer vacation! :D
Chris: No one cares
Lacie: I care
Chris: Well no one else does
Clary: Does this mean you'll update faster? :D
Lacie: Well, see, that's the thing. I applied for some Chinese teaching thing, where I'll learn Chinese for four weeks
Chris: And that starts?...
Lacie:…next week…
Clary: WHY on EARTH would you apply for MORE SCHOOL
Lacie: I know right, I must have a death wish or something.
Chris: Hold it, hold it. Is Clary feeling sorry for Jace? I don't like how you're portraying this very much.
Lacie: honestly, I don't like how I'm portraying this either anymore. Guys, I can't believe I'm saying this. But I'm tired of this fanfic.
Clary: Are you just saying that because you're trying to finish it before you start reading COHF?
Chris: you got it?
Lacie: YES! *spins in her spiny chair* and Holy Mother of Hard Covers it is HUGE. It's like, Harry Potter huge. When I saw it I thought I had accidentally grabbed two copies and then when I was like, wait, no, WHAT. So yes, that is my only reason for distress.
Chris: As long as I get my Chris X Clary ending.
Clary: You're so demanding
Chris: this is the only Chris x Clary fanfic. I can't help it if I want it to end as a proper Chris x Clary fanfic should end.
Clary: But if this is the only one, how do you know how proper it should be?...
Lacie: I'll set the standard for it! I gotta say, I'm pretty happy to say I made up Chris though. Cause he's like, mine.
Clary: Can I end this?
Lacie: Be my guest
Clary: *twirls a curl* Thank you guys for reading. And waiting. Especially for waiting. Hopefully a lot you guys haven't all abandoned us for COHF, though who can blame you-
Chris: I think that's enough from you. Thanks for waiting, Leave a review. Like, do it. I demand for all you ghost readers to at least say hi to me. I'm Chris here and nowhere else.
Lacie: *shoves him aside* sheesh you are demanding today. But yeah you guys. Click that review button, PM me, do what you will. And I hope to see you all soon! Maybe.