Shadowhunters || Jimonael || Light of Their (After)Life || Jimonael || Shadowhunters
Title: Light of Their (After)Life – How Jace Accidentally Got Two Sugar Daddies
Fandom: Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments
Disclaimer: All rights to the Shadowhunters show reserved to Ed Decter, the books the show is based off and its characters belong to Cassandra Clare. This fanfiction on the other hand is entirely mine. No money is made with this, though reviews are more than welcomed.
Tags: polyamory (m/m/m), alpha/beta/omega dynamics, wingfic, hurt/comfort, courting, fluff, BDSM, explicit intercourse, anal, oral, knotting, sex toys, f/f, m/f
Main Pairing: Raphael/Simon/Jace
Side Pairings: Magnus/Alec, Lydia/Izzy, Luke/Catarina
Shadowhunters Characters: Jace Herondale, Simon Lewis, Raphael Santiago, Lily Chen, Magnus Bane, Alec Lightwood, Max Lightwood, Isabelle Lightwood, Lydia Branwell, Clary Fray, Luke Garroway, Madzie Loss, Catarina Loss, Imogen Herondale, Rebecca Lewis, Elaine Lewis
Summary: In the aftermath of the war, the New York Institute wants to strengthen its bonds to the local Downworlders by assigning permanent liaisons to each fraction. Jace becomes the liaison to the vampire clan and thus starts spending much more time with the mated Alpha clan-leader pair, Raphael and Simon. At the same time, he's come to the decision to start embracing his omega nature and get off the suppressants he'd been on his entire life.
Light of Their (After)Life
How Jace Accidentally Got Two Sugar Daddies
Chapter 1: Liaison of the Vampire Clan
The war ended, Valentine was dead for good, Jonathan was dead for good, all was well.
Or that was the euphoric feeling everyone experienced in the direct aftermath, as everyone fell into embraces and there was a large party at the Institute. To celebrate the end of the war, they all came together – Shadowhunters and Downworlders. Drinking, dancing, cheering.
It was the following day that felt surreal. The war was over. What next?
There was so much that needed to be rebuilt. So many Institutes and really half of the City of Class laid in ruins, needed to physically be rebuilt, and the following few months were spent on that, and on individual recovery, both physically and mentally. And then there were the non-physical things that needed rebuilding. The relations between Shadowhunters and Downworlders.
So much had happened during the war, so many things Shadowhunters had done wrong. And it wasn't just the awful attempt to chip Downworlders; everything that had led to the war. If only Shadowhunters had actually punished their own criminals. All of this would have never happened had they properly punished the former Circle members instead of letting them run free, like Hodge, who had indeed betrayed them all once more. Had he never stolen the Mortal Cup, things would have unfolded differently. What needed to be built was trust. The Shadowhunters needed to work to earn the Downworlders' trust, and the relations between them needed to be strengthened – so they could all stand together against any future enemy.
And Alec was on a good path there. Jace was so proud of his parabatai. He'd started the cabinet meetings, sitting down with the leaders of the different fractions, listening to their concerns and ideas. That had, of course, been fractured over the course of the war, but it was where they needed to pick up again. Not just with the meetings though. No, Alec came up with something else.
Personal liaisons assigned to each fraction, one person that they would know to come to, who would be sent first to aid and access before putting together a team, one person in charge of this group's affairs and problems. So Downworlders would more willingly come and seek help, because they knew who to come to. That was a great idea, in Jace's opinion, until he got his assignment.
Clary was made the liaison with the werewolves, on account of her father-daughter relationship with Luke – who, despite tensions during the war, was still the Alpha (and had his own parts to make up for with the wolves and prove himself).
Izzy was made the liaison with the Seelies, on account of her good relationship with Meliorn (though no longer romantic, the two stayed close friends after their break-up).
Alec selflessly took it upon himself to be the liaison to the warlocks, for very obvious relations with the High Warlock of Brooklyn (relations Jace and Izzy never ceased to tease Jace about, in regards to their new stations as liaisons).
The last group left were the vampires. The last one of their inner circle left was Jace.
"Why me?" Jace groaned, throwing his head back. "Iz should pull double duty! Her and Santiago had a thing, just like her and Meliorn. Same reasoning. Perfect solution."
Alec, the bastard, didn't even look up from his paperwork. "Izzy is already pulling… too many duties. She does too many jobs at this Institute and me and Lydia are actively trying to lighten her load, though we still agreed she would be our best bet for the Seelie liaison, which was a priority since our relationship with them is the most… frail, and Meliorn is an important player."
Hard to argue with that one; since the Seelie Queen had died, the Seelie Realm was in disarray but Meliorn as the first knight was a key figure at the court, a potential runner-up for the next Seelie King, so a good relationship with the new Seelie King would be an incredibly valuable thing. Jace huffed and pouted, looking back up to offer Alec said pout.
"Okay, but Lydia-" Jace tried next. "You're head of the Institute and a liaison, she could too."
Alec finally looked up, but he seemed very unimpressed by Jace's pout. Rude. Jace knew his pout to be utterly adorable, and it used to get him anything he wanted from his parabatai.
"Lydia is our link to the Clave, Jace," Alec continued looking very unimpressed. "Do I need to remind you of just how frail our relationship to the Clave is too?"
Jace grumbled and folded his arms on Alec's table to rest his chin on them. Sure, they – the New York Institute, and them specifically – had ended the war, defeated both Valentine and Jonathan, but inexplicably, the Clave still looked down on them. The insult of Hodge betraying them and stealing the Mortal Cup, the disgrace of Valentine's children – though not by blood, Jace had been raised by Valentine – and the embarrassment of the failed wedding between Alec and Lydia. All of these had not endeared them to the Clave, and even Jace's grandma couldn't do much damage control there.
And though the wedding had fallen through, Lydia had chosen to return to the Institute after she'd fully healed in Idris from the attack. Because the connection between Lydia and Alec had been real, though not romantic. She understood love, she understood that he had a different kind of love, and it wasn't as though she'd had romantic feelings for Alec, after all. No, instead, she started developing romantic feelings for a different Lightwood. In the end, Lydia had returned to New York for her friendship with Alec and the potential maybe with Izzy, which at this point had blossomed into a gentle, budding romance. And Jace was so happy for her, and he was also happy for Alec to have a reliable, fit co-leader at his side, who worked well with him.
Jace worked well with Alec too, of course he did. They were parabatai. But Jace wasn't the office type. The thought of being buried by paperwork was an actual nightmare to Jace. That was the reason he'd declined when his grandmother had wanted to install him as the head of the Institute. Of course did she have great expectations for him; he was the sole Herondale heir.
And he was an omega. Traditionally, in their society, omegas were leaders, politicians. Jace was anything but a traditional omega. Thanks to Valentine's parenting, he had spent his entire life on suppressants, having to fight trice as hard to be acknowledged, perceiving his status as an omega as an obstacle that he needed to overcome. All his time at the New York Institute, he had measured himself against the alphas there, thinking he needed to compete against them. All his life, he had pretended to be a beta, thanks to the suppressants. The only ones who'd known before this war had started were Izzy and Alec, because they'd been the only people he'd trusted with it.
But Imogen knew. Somehow, she had figured him out so easily, by observing him, by putting together the little pieces that he gave away. She saw the way he measured himself against the alphas and, as an omega herself, she apparently saw traits in him that he had never seen in himself really. It had been one of their first conversations with each other, as grandmother and grandson, and it had mortified him, because he'd worked so hard to hide it.
"Not every aspect of our work is killing demons, Jace. You know that."
"Ye—eah," Jace groaned again. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."
"For not liking it, you are incredibly good at it," Alec raised an eyebrow at him. "You're the best diplomat at the Institute, Jace. You've always been. Your natural charms, your way with people, you know how to flatter them and endear them to you, if you want to. Everything else aside – the fact that you're my parabatai and I trust nobody more than you, the fact that I want to keep these new, delicate positions assigned to someone who's been there, on the front lines, and also has been supportive of the Downworlder cabinet from the get go – all of that aside, I would still have picked you, because you are the perfect person to pick for this job."
Jace ground his teeth together, tilting his head so he was looking at the ground instead of at his parabatai. He knew he was good at schmoozing people. That was his thing. Without meaning to, he remembered the mission to the Seelie Court, with Clary and… Simon. How surprised Simon had been that Jace was so good with words. Which had kind of stung, because he was more than just a pretty face. Jace's tongue darted out to lick his lips at the thought of Simon.
"But this is a bad idea, I mean this specifically," Jace tried, one last time. "I mean, remember the Seelie Court situation, there's no way Simon doesn't hold a grudge about losing his childhood sweetheart because of me-"
Alec raised a hand, slow and exhausted by this entire conversation. "Simon is happily mated to Raphael at this point, I highly doubt he is still mourning his relationship with Clary."
Alec and his damn logical arguments. Yes, Simon was happily mated to Raphael, the two of them had found together during the war. After his break-up with Clary, Simon reluctantly returned to the Dumort, because living with Clary's dad felt awkward after the breakup. It was the nudge Simon needed to finally try and learn more about vampire culture and the clan. Him and Raphael grew closer, built mutual respect. They'd started dating before the war had ended and, at this point in time, were mated to each other and functioned as co-leaders of the clan. It had earned the clan much more respect, to have the Daylighter not just as a member but as their leader – which, Jace guessed, was the main reason Raphael had installed Simon as his co-leader to begin with, the fact that they later became mates too only worked in his favor.
"Look," Alec cleared his throat to gain Jace's attention, having noticed his parabatai had spaced out. "Are you going to do this, or is this… a serious complaint? Is this going to be an issue?"
Jace rolled his head to lay sideways on one arm so he could look up at Alec. Why was Alec so damn good at reading him? His thoughts had drifted off to Simon, and to Simon's current relationship status, as soon as it came up. Because Jace had a hard time not thinking about Simon when he came up. There was a bitter bytaste to the fact that Simon wasn't just in a relationship, but had a mate.
Jace didn't think it was a secret he'd had a crush on Simon – he had been very vocal about that, after all he'd called Simon pretty to his face when they were in the Seelie Realm, but then everything at the court had happened and things between him and Simon became much more awkward, what with Jace being the reason Simon and his girlfriend broke up. Even though, painfully ironically, the one Jace would have wanted to kiss at that court had been Simon, not Clary, who he had come to look at as a sister in the time they'd believed themselves to be siblings.
Jace had developed a crush on Simon very early on; the nerd was hot and his rambling was cute. But inexplicably, Simon seemed to be falling from one relationship into the next – from his mundie bandmate, to Clary, to a very brief attempt at dating Maia, before getting together with Raphael. Every time Jace thought he'd have an opening to at least hook up with Simon, the vampire was already involved with someone else. And Simon never approached Jace himself either, despite Jace's blatant flirting, so… Simon had made it clear he wasn't interested.
And that was fine. Jace knew he was a lot to handle and not for everyone. However, what Jace wanted was some time and distance so he could get over his stupid crush on Simon. And being the personal liaison of the vampire clan led by Simon and Simon's mate? That was the absolute opposite of what he wanted or needed right now.
"No," Jace heaved a deep sigh as he gave into his fate. "No, it'll be fine. I'll do it."
It was hard saying no to his parabatai, even harder when Alec was having all these arguments at the ready for why Jace's position didn't make sense. The only thing that would get him out of it now would be to vocally admit to Alec that Jace had feelings for Simon and needed the space. And that was just not happening, these feelings were going to stay locked up inside Jace to not be shared with anyone, not even his parabatai. Because he didn't want Alec's pity.
Alec was happily mated, had found a wonderful and amazing alpha to love him, despite the fact that in Shadowhunter society, alpha and beta matches were frowned upon; as a beta man, Alec was supposed to settle down with a nice beta woman, while alphas were supposed to match with omegas. The only way the Clave would turn a blind eye on two men in a relationship was if they were an alpha and omega couple, but a beta? No, that was unacceptable. These prejudices, on top of the fact that Magnus was a Downworlder, had led to a lot of fear and anxiety on Alec's part when he'd first noticed his attraction to Magnus. But now? Now that Alec was in a happy relationship? He'd want the same for Jace, because all he wanted for his parabatai was to be happy.
There was no way Jace could tell his parabatai that he was, in fact, not happy. That he was hopelessly, stupidly pining for someone who didn't want him and was already taken. That was not going to happen. Jace was going to bottle these feelings up until they'd pass.
"Jace…" Alec opened and closed his mouth, eyebrows furrowed like he wanted to say something that he would actually rather not say. "This whole thing, the… mood swings… is this related to…"
"Call that mood swings again and I'll swing at you, Lightwood," Jace glowered at him.
A flush painted Alec's cheeks. "I'm sorry, I just… You've been sitting here whining for like half an hour now, just to say 'okay, fine' in the end. And I know that getting off your suppressants, your hormones are adjusting to what they're supposed to be, and it's a chemical imbalance that you need to adjust to first and get used to and-"
"Alec, for the love of everything, stop talking," Jace groaned and buried his face in his hands. "I don't know. Maybe. Maybe I'm more irritated by this because of all of this stuff. But I'm trying not to think about that. It's happening and I just want it to be over."
He glowered. There was probably a pinch of truth to Alec's assumption. Coming out of the war, with Valentine finally dead and Jace having his grandmother, having family to embrace, he wanted a new start. He wanted to leave Valentine behind. So many of the things Valentine had taught him had proven to be wrong. And meeting Clary, this spitfire omega who kicked ass and took names and didn't care about being an omega and didn't see it as a hindrance at all, also impacted Jace's decision. I was time for a fresh start, one where he got to leave Valentine and all of his teachings behind. It made him incredibly nervous, because he'd never been perceived as an omega before, but he really wanted to see what it'd be like. All his life, he'd had his senses dulled by the suppressants. It was time the shackles came off and he got to fully be.
Alec's eyes were soft as he looked at Jace. "If this becomes too much for any reason, including that you're adjusting to your omega sense and that working closely with two alphas becomes too overwhelming, you tell me and I will figure out a different solution for this, okay?"
"Thanks, parabatai. But… I'll be fine."
Jace offered a thin-lipped smile in return. Of course he would, he was Alec after all. But Jace was not going to be defeated by his own body or hormones. He understood Alec's concern – everything had been overwhelming in the past couple of days, ever since the last of the suppressants had been washed out of his system, noises seemed louder, scents were so much sharper, especially people's scents – but Jace was going to push through this and adjust to it. It was the only option.
"Tell me if you're not," it wasn't a request, it was more near a plea.
Too many things had happened during the war, too many bad things had directly happened to Jace. It was a miracle his parabatai hadn't come out of this war with early graying hair, with how much he had worried about Jace. Jace managed a half-smile and a short nod, but he didn't speak up. He couldn't promise what he wasn't sure he could manage. He wanted to. He wanted to do better with communicating his feelings, wanted to do better with seeking help – after he'd learned about his mother, about her mental health, about the fact that the way he felt sometimes wasn't just him being weird, he wanted to work on these issues. So, with a heavy sigh, Jace sat back down.
"It is irritating," Jace admitted, pulling his knees up against his chest. "It's like the whole world around me is changing, Alec. Everything used to be so dull? Like there was… cotton in my ears and nose. Now, I can hear clearer and it's kind of… exhausting, because it's so loud. So much louder than I'm used to. And the scents are overwhelming, everything smells much sharper. Spicier, sweeter, all the extremes are heightened, and I feel like I've been nauseous from it for a week."
He gave an exhausted grunt and rested his chin on top of his knees. Alec regarded him carefully, like he was considering what to say, or what to think. While waiting, Jace started tapping his fingers against his calf. He knew that Alec was aware of how sensitive a topic his omega-status was for Jace. Even if he wanted to learn to embrace it, in the back of his mind Jace could still hear Michael Wayland's voice telling him how worthless omegas were, that he would never accomplish anything but being a home-maker. Any set back here would just hammer that home.
"Tell me about the upsides."
Jace quirked his lips at Alec's words. His parabatai really knew him, and how to approach him. Right now his thoughts were spiraling about all the downsides, clearly heading into the territory of regret. Alec knew that Jace needed to spin this into a positive angle right now.
"There's… a lot of things that scents give away that I wasn't even aware of. Scents are sharper and more overwhelming because they come with more information now," Jace replied, slowly relaxing a little bit. "I'm still struggling with identifying all of the nuances, but I'm starting to get the gist of what people are… feeling? Like, whether they're in a good or bad mood, I guess."
Alec hummed and nodded. "Sounds like it could be an advantage in a fight."
Of course it could, they both knew that. "Yeah, I guess. Once I get a hang of it."
"I'm sure you will," Alec grinned. "You've always been a quick study, Jace."
With a small sigh did Jace get up, quickly followed by Alec who walked around the desk to stand next to Jace. The blonde reached out to wrap his arms around Alec's neck, getting on his toe-tips to hug the taller Shadowhunter. Alec wrapped his own arms around Jace's waist and pulled the omega into a tight embrace. Closing his eyes, Jace inhaled deeply. There was a scent of sandalwood to Alec that had always been faint to Jace but was much more prominent now. He buried his nose in Alec's neck, nuzzling against his parabatai. Another thing about all of this was that Jace was so much more touchy now, he craved physical contact. It was so soothing and comforting. Maybe it had always been, maybe he had simply ignored that need so far.
As he stood in Alec's arms, surrounded by Alec's scent, he couldn't help but wonder what Simon smelt like to him now. He supposed he was about to find out.
Author's note: The plan was to have this chapter done on Saturday and post it buuut I ran a little late, and I don't wanna wait until next Saturday because I am really excited about this story, so we're all collectively pretending today is Saturday, for the sake of my schedule, yes? :3
This story was sparked by a comment on one of my other Jimonael fics about how good Raph would be as a sugar daddy and it REALLY made me want to write a multi-chapter Jimonael fic incorporating that! And sugar daddy concept pairs well with ABOverse on account of the courting ;D
