SuShadowhunter from Ravenclaw: "Does Jace really love Clary or was it just business?" *shrugs innocently* How should I know?... Oh, okay of course I know but I won't tell you.

Daire123: "I'm still surprised with Jonathan being okay with him [Jace]." Jon never said he was okay with Jace! He just leaves Clary to it. He trusts Clary to make a good decision but of course he'll be wary and he'll definitely be there if Jace fucks up. Jon knows that Jace wouldn't even be around Clary if he didn't treat her well. You'll see Jon being a bit cautious - for lack of a better word - around him. He's an older brother and very protective of her!

Yooooooo! So, recently I've been bombarded by you guys insisting that I carry this on. Literally. At first there were more people wanting other options but over the past couple of weeks I've had more people wanting this to continue! So, without further ado... Chapter 22.

"I have a surprise for you!" Magnus bounced on the balls of his feet as he beamed at Alec.

"Magnus, I've just stepped through the door and you pounce on me." Alec said, amused. He hung his coat up and wasn't surprised to see Magnus trailing behind him when he turned around.

"We're going on a date!" Magnus clasped his hands together, still smiling.

A smile threatened to break out on Alec's face since Magnus's mood seemed contagious "Oh? Are we?

Magnus didn't falter and neither did his bright grin. "Yep!"

Alec picked up Chairman Meow who was purring at his feet. "Why?"

"Why?"

A confused expression took over Alec's face. "What do you mean, why did I ask why or why as in you repeated what I said?"

Magnus looked to be thinking for a second then raised an eyebrow."...What?"

Alec rolled his eyes. "Never mind," he sighed. "So, this date?"

Magnus closed in on Alec, causing Chairman Meow to gracefully leap out of his arms. Magnus absent mindedly pulled a few cat hairs out of Alec's scraggly, black jumper.

"Yeah well, the other night I realised we hadn't been on a date." Magnus smiled to himself as he brushed at Alec's shoulders.

Alec smiled at his boyfriend. "So what's happening on this date?"

Magnus's shoulders lifted in a nonchalant shrug. "It's a surprise!"

Alec lightly grasped Magnus's wrists to stop him in his quest for cat hair. He looked at Magnus and frowned slightly. "I don't like surprises. They make me nervous."

"Many things make you nervous. I make you nervous, Alexander." Magnus said gently but with amusement in his eyes.

Alec shrugged and slid his hands down from Magnus's wrists to his hands. "Yeah, but... that's a good nervous."

Magnus smirked. "A good nervous?"

Alec rolled his eyes and dropped one of Magnus's hands to walk over to the sofa. When he got there, he sat and pulled Magnus down next to him. Magnus threw an arm around Alec's shoulder.

"I'm guessing you're not going to tell me the surprise?"

Magnus grinned. "Oh, you know me so well, Alexander."

Alec shook his head. "Don't I even get a clue?"

Magnus put a glittering nail to his chin as he pretended to think. "Hmmm... No."

"Please?"

"... One clue but only because you know I love it when you beg." Magnus winked causing Alec to blush.

"Just tell me the clue." Alec mumbled trying to mentally force his blush down.

"What's your favourite ice cream flavour? Vanilla?"

"Yeah but-"

"I knew it. You seem like a vanilla ice cream person."

"That was your clue? Ice cream?"

"Yep. Although, we're not just going for ice cream; I'm not that cheap."

One side of Alec's mouth turned up. "So you are cheap to some extent?"

Magnus faked a shocked expression, in reply. "Did you just make a joke, Alexander?"

Alec blushed at the use of his full name and before he could respond, Magnus had spoke again but this time, with a grin. He tenderly stroked Alec's reddened cheek. "There's my Alexander."

Alec shook his head but smiled as Magnus kissed his cheek making a blush highlight his cheeks even more. "When are we going on this date?"

Looking at his watch, Magnus leapt up. "Now, my eager beaver."

"Now?"

"That's what I said."

"It's late."

"It's 8pm. Besides, it's dark out; no one will be able to see that... charming jumper."

Alec frowned and poked his finger through a hole in the sleeve.

Magnus blanched like it physically pained him. "Yeah, let's hope we don't bump into Gok Wan."

Alec raised an eyebrow. "... Gok what?" He bit his lip to prevent a laugh from escaping so not to offend Magnus.

Magnus's golden-green eyes narrowed. "I know that you're trying not laugh but your lip biting is too distracting for me to tell you off for it." Using his thumb, Magnus pulled Alec's lip from his teeth and pressed a soft kiss to it afterwards, causing a shy smile to appear on Alec's face. Magnus returned the smile and got up off the sofa to put on his coat and pass Alec his. Huffing, Alec put his on mumbling about how he'd only just taken it off.

Magnus opened the door and, bowing, he gestured for Alec to walk through it. Alec ducked his head slight so his hair covered his blush as Magnus gave him a wink.

••••• (where tf is the page/line break thing?¿) •••••

Alec looked at Magnus sitting next to him in disbelief. Magnus wasn't grinning or even smiling; he seemed relaxed yet his posture was quite rigid as he held onto the steering wheel of his cherry red convertible.

The first thing Alec said didn't confirm Magnus's doubts, nor did it quash them. His tone didn't give much away either but to Magnus's momentarily pessimistic mind, it was more negative than positive. It was quiet and thoughtful. "I didn't even know that these were around any more."

Magnus shrugged, seeming casual. "I know a guy."

"Let me guess 'Who knows a guy'?"

"Alexander, don't be smug it's not attractive."

"Sorry."

Magnus internally sighed and took Alec's hand. "So," he began, trying a smile. "do you like it? If you don't we can go somewhere else, it's on me after all."

Alec started shaking his head before Magnus could finish his sentence. "Seriously, Magnus, I love it. I've always wanted to go to a drive-in movie, ever since I was a little kid and my grandfather told me how he took my grandmother to one at least once a week, no matter how tight money got."

Magnus was somewhat taken aback. This was the first time Alec had spoken about his family - other than Jace, Isabelle or the like - to him. He could see a twinkle in his eye and made a mental note to try to get Alec talking about his family a bit more. But he also saw the hint of a smile, a sad one at that.

"Well, I'm glad you like it. One of my favourite movies is playing." Magnus's mood brightened at Alec's encouraging words.

Alec's eyes were still locked on the large screen when he asked, "Which movie?"

"Grease."

Alec faced Magnus with a confused look and his head tilted slightly. "What's it about?" Magnus swore that if the younger boy didn't look so adorable, he would've hit him.

"Are you joking?"

Alec shook his head warily.

"Alexander Lightwood, how on Earth do you not know what Grease is?"

Alec shrugged. "I've never really had time for movies. Even growing up."

Magnus looked at Alec contemplatively before announcing, "You'll love it."

Alec looked at him sceptically. "Are you sure? I mean if you like it, I'm not sure I will."

"Au contraire, mon cheri. Grease is a classic. Everybody and anybody likes it."

Alec nodded- not without a blush - and replied, "I'll have to trust you on that."
••••• ( break)
(Previously: Jace spoke softly. "Clary, this isn't because of the tailing, is it?"

Clary just shook her head and buried her head further into Jace's neck.

"Okay." Jace spotted a leather couch in the corner of the room and picked Clary up by her hips so she automatically wrapped her legs around him. He sat them both down- so she was straddling him- and he sat there hugging her and rubbing her back, occasionally kissing her head.)

After a while, Clary lifted her head sniffling. It did unimaginable things to Jace's heart when she whimpered.

"Hey, you still there?" Jace attempted a joke - lamely in his opinion - to cheer his red head up. It didn't work.

"Jace." This wasn't Jace's forte. An emotional girl that he didn't just throw out after sex. And an emotional girl that was as strong Clary definitely wasn't his forte. Clary's voice was taut and strained, a sound that wasn't welcome to Jace's ears.

"What is it? What can I do?" At this moment, Jace would do anything and everything in his power (which was a lot) to make Clary happy and stop her hurting. He was - though he'd never say it aloud - rather desperate.

Clary suddenly seemed to snap out of her mood as she wiped her eyes abruptly. "Let's just go."

Jace blinked. "Go? As in... home? Don't you think we should talk? You were pretty upset."

Clary nodded. "I'm sure Jace," She kissed his chin softly. "Please."

Jace gave the girl in his lap one last gentle pat on the back and helped her stand. He checked his watch as she straightened herself out. "It's 6am. We can still sleep."

Despite herself, Clary laughed a bit. "Sounds nice. You're doing well considering you used to be a cold-hearted, womanizing man-whore."

"And because I used to be, I won't take that to heart. But thank you."

"Thank you."

"Aaand, I promise we can cuddle." Jace slung an arm around her waist and steered her towards the door, with her on shaky legs.

Clary leaned into Jace and sniffled. "You're going fucking soft. Although, that'd be nice."

When they got out of the room, Bat, Meliorn and Jordan were waiting outside. Clary immediately tensed. "Where's Jon?"

Bat spoke up. "He's gone to call in more security. Don't worry, I sent a few people with him."

"Thank you, Bat."

"Just doing my job."

Jace turned to Meliorn as Clary continued to thank Bat and Jordan and check everything else was up to speed.

"Thank you, Meliorn. Seriously. I always knew you were the best in the business and I knew I could trust you with Clary. I owe you a massive pay rise. Take a day or two off as well, you deserve it. Not too long, I can't afford to have that long without you, especially not now."

Meliorn smiled. "Thank you, sir, but with all due respect the days off won't be necessary."

Jace rested a friendly hand on his shoulder. "One day then. That's an order."

"One day. That's it though." Meliorn laughed.

Clary walked up to them then and began thanking Meliorn who just replied with, "A friend - or otherwise - of my boss's is a friend of mine and it's my duty."

As they were walking off Clary nudged Jace. "I might have to steal him off you."

Jace snorted. "You can try but I just gave him a pay rise."
••••• (break)
Back at Jace's apartment - home - true to Jace's word, they were in his bed face-to-face fitted together.

Much to Jace's discomfort and distress Clary had started crying again as soon as they stepped through the door. The second phase of god-knows-what started as she started getting angry. She yelled at Jace for trying to comfort her, telling him how she wasn't weak and that she didn't need help. Jace was helpless. Then came the third phase; more sadness. She didn't seem fit for much by the time Jace was able to go near her, so he walked her into the bedroom and sat her down.

He'd knelt down and began to untie her shoelaces. "I think you could do with about 2 days of sleep after that." He murmured.

"Sorry."

He glanced up at her. "Don't worry about it. I'm a lot worse than that, just wait until you have to repay the favour."

There was a silence as Jace got Clary's shoes and socks off. He reached for the bottom of her top and she pulled away.

"I'm not fucking mental, Jace. I can do it myself."

Jace kissed her forehead and nodded. 15 minutes later they were in a shower together and Jace had convinced Clary to let him wash her hair.

Looking at her, Jace's mind was in overdrive. Here she was; powerful leader of a huge gang and someone was washing her hair. Namely, Jace Herondale. Rival gang leader. Whom she'd been with for a week. He rinsed out the conditioner and even brushed it and tied it back when they were dry and in their pyjamas- in Jace's case, his boxers.

Back to the present and Clary was sleeping soundly, arms tucked between hers and Jace's chest and her legs twined with Jace's. Jace was still awake and stroking Clary's red hair. A quick look at the alarm clock told him it was 7:45am, so he grabbed his phone and cancelled everything he had on that day leaving him and Clary to themselves.

Oh. My. Lord. It's been FUCKING AGES! I missed this a lot. How have you guys been? Also, I have twitter which I never told you guys about even though I've been PMed about 5 times about it. I have two (not sure why) markbblackthorn is my fandom one and _bisexuwhale is my more personal one so hmu. Thank you for being so patient.