Thank you to those of you who have continued to favourite/follow Meant To Be?

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…and to those of you who have moved on to the sequel, Cursed Love

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:D

Jace Wayland

"Take her back to her room…" I heard Valentine command before snatching my er- fiancé?

I haven't formally proposed so that's not the right term. My intended? Betrothed? Ugh. What do you call the person who has always been your best friend/parabatai before then turning into your future wife? You know what. I'll just stick to parabatai.

He took my parabatai from my arms.

"NO!" I shouted in alarm before grabbing her arm tightly, "I don't trust you with her."

He dared to smirk at me.

"You don't trust me, Jonathan?" I jerked my head as a response, "Very well." He gave the two of us a calculating look before seeming to make a decision, "She can stay in your room then."

"What?!" we both exclaimed before giving the other a hasty look and then looking away again.

"Well. It will be both your rooms now." I hope my glare can pierce a hole through his skull, "Stop glaring at me Jonathan otherwise your bride can stay in her cell- I mean her old room."

She was kept in a cell? "She is not my bride!" I replied hotly.

I felt her- Lissa. Her name is Lissa - flinch by my side.

His eyebrow twitched upwards before he spoke again, "If she is not to be your wife, then you wouldn't mind if I threw her to the rest of the crew to have their merry way with her would you?"

"That is NOT WHAT I MEANT!" I barked out before cradling Lissa in my arms. "She will stay with me. And no one will touch her bar me. Am I understood? Father?"

He smirked again before calling behind him, "Lead my son and the girl to their rooms."

A man stepped away from the other shadowhunters behind them and walked forwards. He walked passed Lissa and I. Valentine nodded towards the man, indicating for us to follow him. I began to edge away from the assembly, making sure Lissa was behind me, away from any possible danger. The man led us through a series of hallways. This boat is too big to make an easy escape route. How can I help Lissa escape if I don't know the way out?

Before long, the man led us to a door - the only door in the corridor. The man-with-no-name gestured towards the door before bowing his head down lowly and leaving.

We were left in awkward silence, with my arm still cradling her towards me.

Why does this have to be so awkward?

I used my left hand - my free hand - to brush my hair away before coughing nervously and then gesturing towards the closed door.

"Shall we go inside?" I asked before cringing intensely at the sound of my own voice. I sound like a teenage boy going through puberty. My misfortune seemed to amuse her as the corner of her lips twitched upwards at the sound of my voice.

She reached out towards the doorknob and opened the door, allowing us to see…

A normal room.

With a bed. And a wardrobe. And a cabinet. And a desk.

Everything you would imagine in a regular room, but the only difference is that this room seemed to emit a sense of loneliness and despair.

Lissa seemed to feel the same thing as she shivered by my side.

We shuffled into the room and the door shut automatically behind us, leaving us in dim lighting. I reached out towards the light switch on the wall and flicked it on, allowing the naked light to shine on us.

Silence ensued once again.

Slowly, Lissa detached herself from my arms and moved away from me to sit on the bed. I found myself missing the feeling of her in my arms.

Snap out of it Jace. She is your best friend. Your parabatai. You can't start having lusty feelings towards her. She is yours to protect, not to lust over. It is forbidden!

She patted the space beside her. I hesitated. She cocked an eyebrow at me, "I don't bite ya know."

I blushed. What is she doing to me? I never blush! I quickly moved to sit beside her. Great. Now I look eager to be in bed with her.

"We have to talk about what's happened and what is going to happen." We both spoke in a rush.

We shared a stare before she broke out into a fit of giggles, causing me to chuckle lightly.

I got up and headed towards the wardrobe. "We'll talk as soon as we get changed."

"Why can't we talk now?" she questioned lightly from behind me.

"You're probably not comfortable in that dress." I said with a smirk, as I turned towards her, holding a pair of pyjamas, "After all you've been wearing the same thing for the past couple of days."

She shook her head in annoyance, "Don't remind me."

I laughed at her adorable pout, "And you're gonna need a shower cause let me be frank, you smell."

"How kind of you…" she huffed.

"So top?" I asked as I lifted the shirt, "Or bottom?" unfurling the pyjama bottoms and lifting them in the air for her to see.

She looked from the shirt to the bottoms to me in quick succession.

"I'm just kidding," I said with a smirk before throwing the shirt at her and heading into the bathroom. (AN: Anyone catch the reference?)

I took a shower, enjoying the warm spray of water. I felt my muscles relax as I let everything slip away. I didn't leave the shower until my flesh was pink and slightly pruned. I left the room wearing my pyjama bottoms and the towel over my shoulder. I walked into the room to see Lissa, laying on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

"Here," I said before tossing the towel at her. She was caught off guard and didn't catch the towel before it landed on her face.

She gave a light scream before swatting the towel away, "Ew. Ew. Ew. EW!" She jumped from the bed before running at me. She jabbed my chest with her index finger, "Why did you do that?" She jabbed me again. "It's impolite to throw a wet towel on someone's face." She jabbed me once more. "Why aren't you wearing a shirt?"

Her voice trailed off before surveying my chest once again. I smirked down at her as she remained transfixed. We must have stood there for at least a minute before she soon snapped out of it and turned her beautiful eyes towards my face. She must have caught sight of my smirk because she blushed deeply before rushing to the bed to grab the shirt and towel and then running into the bathroom, locking the door behind her, with my laugh following after her.

She too took her time in the bathroom. To be fair, she's been wearing the same clothes since the almost-wedding. And the last time she took a shower was- a while ago.

After what seemed to be hours, she exited the bathroom. Framed by white smoke that seemed to curl around her, she looked radiant in my shirt. A shirt that just reached the middle of her tiny thighs. I never realised how delicate looking she was out of her shadowhunting gear.

Snap out of it Jace.

I was laying on the left-hand side of the giant bed, the furthest away from the bathroom and closest to the exit so when she ran from the bathroom and jumped on to the bed. She snuggled under the duvet, facing me. I got under the duvet and turned on to my side to face her. Our faces were so close together that I could feel her breath on my face.

"We do need to talk Jay," she whispered.

I nodded my head in agreement but my eyes stayed captivated on her lips.

"We will talk but not tonight." I reached over her to shut the lights before rolling on to my back. "We need to rest after the day we've had."

"More like after the several weeks we just experienced," she said with a sigh as she shut her eyes.

I chuckled darkly as the memories swarmed me, "Yeah." I looked to the side, towards her, "At least there was one thing that came out as good from this whole experience."

"Really?" she said sleepily, "What was it?"

I rolled onto my side to look at her face. She was fighting sleep now.

I gathered her tiny hands in my larger ones, "I got to re-meet you Lis." she smiled beautifully at me. Her eyes began to flutter shut as I whispered, "I'm never gonna regret seeing you again Alicia Graymark." I gave her hands a small kiss, "Goodnight Lissa."

And with that, my eyes shut and I drifted off to sleep, all the while, still holding her hands.

In the morning, I woke up to find Lissa in my arms, head resting above my heart. I didn't want to wake her so I laid there until she woke up. After an hour or so, she started shifting around. In the time leading to her consciousness, I had assembled a smirk on my face as I imagined the look of horror on her face when she woke up.

And a wonderful reaction she did give me.

She moaned at the sunlight that reached her eyes as she woke up. Her body stilled when she realised that she was lying on a body. She hesitantly trailed her eyes upwards to look at my smirking face. Her eyes widened in alarm before she yelped and jumped away from me, causing her to fall off the bed.

I howled with laughter as her head slowly rose from the side of the bed as she peeked at me with her adorable rosy red cheeks.

She whimpered as she said, "Stop it. It's not funny." I continued to laugh. "Stop."

I just pulled her onto the bed and continued to poke her sides until she began giggling beside me.

We did have to stop and get ready in the end as my father's henchmen were ordered to come to our room to wake us up. We didn't get to have our talk as we were busy being kept apart or trained throughout the day until bedtime.

I did notice that she became more solemn and silent outside our little room, which is why I made the effort to make her smile and laugh when we were together.

It has been 6 days since we got on this ship. We went through the same ritual every night. In the mornings, we always woke up in the same position. So after the third night, when we were getting ready to sleep, I tugged her towards me until she was in my arms. We've slept like that ever since.

The only annoying bit about the arrangement is that my father never invested in getting Lissa some clothes so she'd have to wear mine with a belt around her to make it look that it at least fits her. Men around the ship would ogle at her legs whenever they were exposed, causing me to want to throttle them.

…

Anyway.

Last night… Things changed.

We were less tired tonight so we didn't go to sleep as quickly as we usually did. We were lying on the bed like the first night in this room: facing each other, so close together that we could feel the other's breath.

I don't know why it happened. Why tonight rather than any of the previous nights?

Maybe it was because we'd gotten so comfortable with each other's presence. Maybe it was because, after all this time, the tension peaked? I honestly don't know why…

"We have time to talk now," she said with a serious expression. I nodded absently as I stared at her lips once more.

"I just wanna test something first."

I can't. I can't. I can't. She's your parabatai. You're supposed to protect her. Nothing more. Nothing less. Protect her. Protect her. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I shouldn't do this. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. It's wrong. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't.

But I did.

With a brief sense of hesitation, I thought it over quickly before dismissing the thought.

I leant forward.

And… I kissed her.

Again.

She stared up at me in shock as my lips slowly began to move against hers. This is nice. Her eyes fluttered shut as her hands began a trail upwards, towards my hair. I opened my eyes slightly, to see a look of peace on her face, gone was the tear-stained girl I kissed several days. Instead, there was a girl - almost a woman - who kissed me with a passion that I'd never experienced before. My hands were once again in her hair, tugging lightly so that her head remained angled towards me. She gasped, allowing me the opportunity to slither my tongue into her mouth. She was on her back now. How did that happen? Her hands now frantically roving over my back as my lips moved away from her delicious lips towards her neck, allowing us the relief of oxygen once more. I nipped her neck as she groaned before she tugged me back towards her lips. I could never get tired of this. After a while, the kiss soon began to wane. I rested my forehead against hers, before giving light kisses on her nose, cheeks and lips. Her eyes blinked open to stare at me. Questions roamed her beautiful cerulean orbs but I dismissed them for a while as I stared at the angel beneath me.

I hadn't been this close to her in years.

Freckles dotted her nose. Her eyes a sea of blues, framed by her thick eyelashes. Cheeks tinged red. Lips swollen from the kiss, but still the natural pink they've always been.

She's "perfect." I thought.

Her cheeks turned a brighter pink as I realised that I said my thoughts aloud.

"Thank you." she murmured before looking me in the eye more confidently, "You promised me a talk." she rolled her eyes, "You promised several days ago."

I nodded in agreement, before rolling towards the left, laying on my back.

We stayed in silence for a few moments before I sighed and sat up.

"Come on." I said lightly, as I turned towards her, "Get up. You're gonna get your talk."

She sat up, but in doing so, made me realise how the shirt hugged her body. The sleeves of my shirt were loose and long on her but the swell of her breast could be seen hugging the shirt.

You are not a lust-filled teenage boy. You are a trained shadowhunter. Control yourself!

"Why did you kiss me?" she fired at me instantly, startling me from my thoughts.

"I-er…" she raised her eyebrow questioningly at my slight stutter. Man up. "I wanted to see if we were compatible."

"And are- are we?" she asked with a slight wobble in her voice.

I thought over her question.

Why wouldn't we be compatible? We kiss as if we've been doing it for years. We've known each other for years. I do love her. I may not be in love with her. Yet. But I do love her. Maybe after some time… I may be in love with her. At the moment, she's all I've got from my old world. Even if we aren't together together, I'll be there for her.

"I don't see why not," I said with a smirk.

She seemed to sigh in relief, before leaping on me with a hug. I chuckled at her show of affection. I miss this. I hugged her back with equal intensity and rested my head in the crook of her neck.

"I don't know how we keep ending up like this," I said with a wry grin. She gave me a confused expression before indicating towards the position we were in, with her straddling my hips. She blushed and rushed to hurry away. I wrapped my arms around her, stopping her from leaving.

"This is inappropriate," she argued weakly as she tried to shuffle away.

I rolled my eyes before moving her so her legs were over one of my legs (I was sat with my legs crisscrossed), her bum sat on my feet, and her waist cradled between my arms.

"Better?" I teased lightly before a serious expression invaded my features, causing her to lose her slight smile. "I don't love you." I said lightly, causing her to flinch and begin to shrink away, I held her closer to me and tilted her head to look her in the eye again, "At least not yet anyway."

"I don't understand."

"Well." I softly said as I flicked her nose, causing her to scrunch it up, "I'm not in love with you Lissa. But I do love you." she cocked her head to the side, "I'm not in love with you but in time…" I paused to gather myself, "In time, I can see myself falling in love with you."

"Really?" she asked hopefully.

"Really," I commented lightly. "And what about you Lis?" I began stroking her hair, "Can you love me?"

She looked down and away from me for what seemed like years. Eventually, she looked me in the eye. She didn't talk, only caressed my face softly. My eyes shut at the relaxing feeling. I felt her lean forward and give my left eyelid a kiss, "I", she then kissed my right eyelid, "think", she moved downwards and kissed my cheek, "I" she then trailed a kiss to the opposite kiss before whispering in my ear, "already" she finished the trail of kiss by giving the corner of my lips a light peck, "do."

At her words, I pushed her down against the bed before showering her with new kisses. I've never felt so loved or given someone this much love. But to love is to destroy… Right? I ignored my thoughts and focused on the kiss. This time it was more light-hearted rather than passion-filled like last time, which was still fine for me. Any kiss from her is fine by me.

She soon pushed me away with a shake of her head, "Talk." I moved further away from her this time, so I wouldn't be tempted by her irresistible lips. But I kept a hold of her right hand.

"What do I talk about?" I asked.

"What do you think of our future nuptials?" she asked lightly.

I gave the back of her hand a light kiss before softly speaking, "I do love you, Lis. It'll take time to get used to the idea of being forced to marry…" her head began to bow down so I flicked her pouty bottom lip, just like I did when we re-met each other, causing her to look up at me.

"I don't get how this is going to work out though…"

"What do you mean?" I questioned.

She gestured between us, "We're parabatai. The only bond forbidden to the parabatai is the romantic bond. As upheld by the Clave and written into the Shadowhunter's Codex, bonded pairs must maintain the dignity of their warrior bond and must not allow it to transform into the earthly love, Eros."

"Did you quote that from a book?" I asked in shock.

She giggled before shrugging. "Well, I don't really know what will happen. Our betrothal contract is binding. Alec and I checked."

I nodded along, "But so is our bond as parabatai."

She looked thoughtful, "But we never did say our official vows in front of the Council."

Huh. "That's true but we still runed each other."

A familiar look took over her face. "Do you remember how mad my parents and your dad were when they found out that we had runed each other with the parabatai rune when we found it in that book?" Yep! That's her I-have-an-idea-look!

I laughed at the memory, "Yeah. They were pissed." Thinking back, "But Michael- er Valentine was absolutely furious."

She nodded eagerly, "Exactly by that time, they must have done the contract already and when he found out, he must have thought that the contract became null and void."

"He was plotting my future even back then. He wanted us to get married…" I felt my fury begin to bubble up again, "But why? What does he gain from it?"

She shrugged, "I don't know… he only seems to want power-." She seemed to get a breakthrough, "Power. He wants power."

"Yeah? And so what?" I replied, wanting to know what she figured out.

"What's a better way of gaining power than marrying his son to the Heir to the Throne of Idris." I looked at her, starting to get what she meant, "Then in later life, after we've been married, we'd have children and the eldest…"

"…would be my child so he'd have power over him or her." I finished.

"Him." she cut me off. I looked at her confused. She blushed before murmuring, "I want a son as a firstborn."

I laughed, "So we're having a boy?"

She swatted my arm, "Shut up."

"I'm glad it's me you're marrying, and you who's marrying me. Now I don't have to worry about a scumbag taking you from me."

"Jay," she said with a laugh, her head tilted upwards in delight, exposing her long, slender, rune-free neck. Just like the rest of her body. Off-topic. Runes always fade from her body, they're never permanent and yet they last longer than any rune I've made. Focus. "As long as you'll try to make this work. For us. For me." I looked her in the eye intensely, "Then I don't mind how we turn out or what gender the baby if we have one, will be."

"Oh Lis. We're gonna be perfectly fine. And of course, we'll have kids. We're too amazingly beautiful not to pass on these genes." I winked, "We'll be fine. After all. We're us." I said with a smirk. I looked behind her to see that it was already passed 2 am. "But right now we need to sleep. We've had a long, long day."

"But we haven't finished talking," she argued with a slight yawn as I pulled her down towards the pillows again, this time with her back resting against my front and my arms wrapped tightly around her.

"What do we have left to talk about?" I asked as I pulled the duvet on top of us.

I pulled her closer to me as she said, "We have to talk about the cup. Valentine."

I sighed into her neck, "We can talk about Valentine and our escape later when we're up to our full strength."

"The Cup?"

I shrugged, "What about it?"

She looked unsure about whether she was gonna tell me but after a few moments of thinking, she seemed to make up her mind. She rolled away from me before sitting up, I joined her as she raised her hands causing the room shimmer.

I gave her a confused look, to which she explained, "I sound-proofed the room so no one can hear what we say next." I nodded in understanding and waited for her to reveal her secret. "The Cup it's-" she hesitated, "-it's fake."

I looked at her in shock, "What!"

She immediately clasped her hands over my mouth, "Shush!" She looked me in the eye, "Are you going to be quiet if I remove my hands?"

I nodded my head and she released her grip on me, "What do you mean the Cup is fake?"

She shrugged sheepishly, "Well the Cup we found isn't the real one. Mom placed a replicate Cup in a card as a decoy."

"How long have you known this?" I interrogated.

She looked ashamed now as she admitted, "Since the night mom went missing." I tried to stench my look of betrayal but she must have seen it flash across my face. "I promised her Jace." She refused to look me in the eye, "I wanted to tell you all but mom didn't want me to tell anyone. Not even Clary…" she began rambling now, "Luke already knew but that was because he knew mom and he knew who I really was and that if anyone should protect the Cup it would be me."

"I get it, Lis." I stopped her. "Thank you for telling me this but where's the real Cup?"

She smirked at me before waving her hand in a few complicated movements. Soon after, a familiar card appeared. She snapped her fingers and let the card fall into my waiting hands.

"The similarities are uncanny," I observed.

She nodded happily, "Watch this." She plucked the card from my hand before plunging her hand into the card to retrieve the Cup. She handed me the real Cup.

"Woah…" I inspected the Cup for its finer details, "This looks exactly like the other Cup. It's amazing."

She smiled, "Mom's an amazing artist Jace. You'll love her." I smiled awkwardly at the reminder that my mom was her adoptive mother. She grabbed the Cup, placing it back into the card before flicking it out of existence once more.

"Where are you hiding the card?" I asked curiously.

She laughed lightly before smirking at me, "In your bedroom."

"What?!"

She giggled even harder, "Yeah. I made a tiny vault in your room. I figured no one would look to the picture you have of us as kids for a rune." I blushed at the realisation that she knew, "It's cute." She reassured, "I forgot how happy we were back then."

"When did you make the vault?"

"Around the time when you and Clary went against Alec and me." She shrugged nonchalantly.

I winced, "Sorry about that again."

She waved it off, "It's alright. When you guys left with the 'Cup'" she used her fingers to make air quotations, "I made a hole in the wall of your bedroom and placed the card in there. I have a similar vault in my bedroom and I used to switch the locations of the Cup between the two. Anyway, I reattached the piece of the wall with magic before sealing it with my magic and then a rune. To triple lock it, I ensured that you had to draw the rune hidden on the photo you have of us before you can attempt to open the vault." I looked at her in shock. How the hell did she manage this on her own?

"What does this mean in terms of Valentine's army?"

She looked sad, "They're real. The first lot are at least." I nodded at the reminder of the events a couple of days ago.

I hated it whenever she was sad. I pulled her back into our lying position, "I think that's enough revelations for today."

"But we haven't finished talking about what this means for Clary!"

"What about her?" I said gruffly. She sure knows how to make things awkward.

"We may not be biologically related but I spent almost 8 years of my life thinking she was my twin sister." She said sadly, "We don't have the same relationship that we used to but I still care about her feelings. I'm scared that we're going to hurt her. Or that I'll get hurt because of this. I don't want to be stuck in a loveless marriage."

"I'm not gonna lie, Lis." I murmured into her neck as I struggled to pull my thoughts together, "I thought that what Clary and I had was love. I don't know what it is now. I know I care for you to what extent I don't know yet but I'm still confused because apparently I have or had - I don't know - feelings for my own sister." I shuddered at the thought as she began to rub my hands, which lay on her stomach, in comfort.

"We don't have to talk about this now." she whispered, and I sighed in relief, "But thank you for at least trying to help me understand you." she brought my hands up and gave them a kiss, "I love you, Jay. And I'll wait for you, however long it may take for you to love me back."

I don't think it's gonna take as long as you think. "Thank you, Lis," I said with a grin she couldn't see, I reached over her to turn the lights off, plunging us into darkness. "As long as we trust one another, we're gonna be fine."

"I'll always trust you above anyone else Jay." she snuggled closer towards me, "Thanks for the talk, Jay."

"Anytime Lis. Anytime."

I feel like I'm moving on really quickly but I wanted to progress with this season's events.

What do you guys think?