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, kneeling, spanking, 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
Original Characters: Harald 'Hal' Armstrong, Timothy Jeong, Grace Oriol, Salvador Oriol Salazar
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 2: Welcome to Hotel Dumort
Simon was so excited and in such a good mood. Though Raphael knew the reason for this, he still found it amusing and endearing. Perhaps he was just too smitten with his mate. It was certainly also his faith in their relationship. They weren't just dating, they were mates. That bond meant something. He knew he had Simon's loyalty, even if a part of his heart belonged to someone else. Simon had been upfront about being polyamorous and about having feelings for other people. Namely, Clary Fray and Jace Lightwood. The first of those had figured, seeing as Simon and Clary had broken up very suddenly, for Simon, and he needed time to get over it. He had, at this point.
His feelings for Jace Lightwood were something else though; instead of lessening, they have only grown since the incident that had broken Clary and Simon up. And Raphael knew this. Simon was always open about his feelings, insisting that relationships needed honesty – and maybe he was relying even more on it after the way him and Clary had fallen apart, the reason for it. The reason being that Clary still had feelings for Jace, and that she had chosen to hide it, had used Simon more as a rebound after learning she and Jace were siblings.
Raphael knew Simon would never cheat on him, so he was fine with Simon's attraction to Jace. That was just who Raphael was. He was a patient man and he was loyal and believed in the loyalty given to him by his partner, because that was what he believed to be important in a relationship. Trust. So, between the trust and the communication, Raphael thought they were doing well.
Even with all of that, Raphael had to admit that he would have preferred a different liaison with the New York Institute. Because Simon having feelings was one thing, but the object of Simon's desire becoming a more constant part of their lives and visiting their home regularly was something else.
"Raphael, there… is a guest for you two," Lily stuck her head into his office.
Since getting together with Simon, Raphael wanted to have a semblance at a private life, so he strictly separated their clan-leader duty from their private life by having an office. He did all his work from there, not in their penthouse, leaving the clan-leader behind once he got home. Admittedly, it had been Simon who made him do this, because his lover had brought up just how tightly wound Raphael was and how much time he spent on his work, bringing it to bed with him. But then he wasn't really used to having a steady partner, or to being clan-leader – it had only been a couple of months now that he'd had this responsibility – so he had needed to find a balance.
"Who is it? If it's clan-business, send them away until tomorrow," Raphael paused for a moment, looking toward the bathroom. "Otherwise I'll get into trouble with my mate."
Lily hummed, an amused look on her face. She'd made her opinion on Simon well-known – he was sweet and he was also good for Raphael, according to her. He glared at his second-in-command.
"It's the liaison with the Institute," Lily offered after another moment. "I told him business is closed for today, but he says it's not business, it's… You should see him and hear it from him."
Raphael raised one unimpressed eyebrow at that. Jace Lightwood. Bothering him at home. That was off to a good start. Though he trusted Lily's judgment, and if she thought whatever he wanted was urgent enough to see him right now… Heaving a sigh, Raphael nodded.
"Simon, amor, get dressed, we are about to have a guest," Raphael called. "It's Jace."
Within seconds, Simon was at his side, hair still damp and clothes disheveled – but at least he was wearing clothes. "What? Why? What? It's like six AM, we were about to head to bed."
All Raphael did was shake his head and shrug. He wasn't a fan of letting the snarky beta into their home, he had hoped to limit Jace in a strictly professional setting to their office. To not blur any lines. For his own sake and also for Simon's sake.
"Hey, guys," Jace knocked on the door that Lily had left open before he entered the loft. "I figured, since… we know each other, we could do this whole thing a little more informal."
Simon stared at him in excitement. He couldn't help it, that was just who Simon was. He wore his heart on his sleeve and he was always excited to see the people he cared about. And he cared about Jace. Also, it was just always a treat to see the pretty blonde. After a moment of staring, Simon started sniffing the air as he caught a scent. Mh. Something smelt good. Really good.
"A—And you decided to bring pastry for this informal meeting?" Simon perked up. "That is so considerate of you, it smells delicious. Where is it? What is it?"
He walked up to Jace with the intention of taking whatever it was from him to carry to the kitchen. The closer he walked toward Jace, the more intense did the scent get, which was a little weird. And Jace was staring at him in confusion too, until something passed over his face – surprise and something that Simon had never seen on Jace before. The Shadowhutner seemed… flustered.
"That—" Jace interrupted himself, clearing his throat. "That's me."
Simon paused, confused. What did that even mean? At this point, he stood so close to Jace though, he could smell it. That this wasn't something Jace was carrying, that this delicious, mouth-watering scent of strawberries, roses and honey came from Jace, the same way Raphael smelt like licorice and cherries. But… Simon had been this close to Jace before? And betas didn't really have an outstanding scent like that, they did have their individual scents, but more of an easy, neutral scent, while alphas had extreme sharp notes and omegas had extreme sweet notes.
Without meaning to did Simon lean in, closer and closer, drawn in by the delicious sweet scent. His eyelids fluttered shut as he was so close to the source, his nose brushing against soft skin as he inhaled deeply. He could lay down in this scent, just be surrounded by it from all sides.
"Simon," Raphael's voice was sharp and his grip on Simon's arm was tight. "Let go of the unmated omega you're currently cornering."
Corner what? When Simon blinked his eyes open, he noticed that his hands had found their way to Jace's hips, holding him. Not really holding him in place, just holding onto him. And Jace just stood there, not moving a single muscle, Simon was pretty sure Jace might be holding his breath. As soon as he came back to his senses did Simon let go of Jace like he'd been burned and allowed Raphael to pull him back some, bring some distance between himself and Jace.
"Oh shit, I am so sorry, I did not mean to be inappropriate or to cross any lines with you-"
He had his hands up and was staring at Jace with what he assumed to be a deer-in-the-headlights look, overcome with a sense of dread and guilt. He would never push himself onto someone! Honestly, he had no idea what had overcome him here. Over the past months, he'd been close to Jace so often before but Jace's scent had never affected him like that? Raphael rested a calming hand on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.
"It's okay," Jace huffed, but Simon was pretty sure this was the first time he took a breath. "That's kind of… why I chose to come outside of 'business hours'."
Simon's face screwed up in confusion. "What does that even mean?"
Casually did Jace walk over toward the living room section of their suite – the kitchen and living room were an open space that one walked in when entering the suite – and just sat down on the large, black leather couch, lounging comfortably like he owned the place. Simon could feel the annoyance radiating off his mate, but Simon himself kind of liked that. There was something about Jace's insolence that Simon always found enthralling.
"As you might have noticed, the scent's new," Jace motioned at himself.
"You're an omega," Raphael looked at Jace as though his gaze could bore straight into the Shadowhunter's soul. "You've always presented as a beta so far."
"Yeah," Jace shrugged with an air of carelessness. "Been on suppressants until… shortly after the war ended. This is… still new. People at the Institute are still getting used to it too. So, I figured, since we haven't really… spent time together since I went off my suppressants, it might be a good idea to meet in private and not have this conversation as an add-on during official business."
Something in Raphael's posture changed as he relaxed just a fraction, nodding. "I appreciate that. You didn't have to, since this is… none of our business."
"Right," there was something weird about Jace's voice there, before he cleared his throat. "Though I did not expect as strong a reaction as you had there, Lewis."
He raised his eyebrows at Simon and Simon was pretty much ready to be swallowed by the ground. Clary was an omega, Bat was an omega, there were many omegas in the clan, but Simon had never reacted to any in this way. Well, to Clary while they had been dating, but those were clearly different circumstances. Subconsciously, he licked his lips because he could still smell Jace.
"This gonna be a problem," Jace arched both eyebrows, motioning at Simon. "Me being an omega gonna be a problem for you?"
"No!" Simon sputtered, in such a hurry to reassure Jace. "I'm not. I just. Uh. Honestly, I don't know what it is, I have better control normally. Maybe it's because this is such a surprise, like, you have never smelt like that before? But I'll get used to it and do better, I promise."
There was a half-smirk on Jace's lips and Simon couldn't tell if it was because he enjoyed teasing Jace or because he enjoyed the ego-boost of having that effect on the alpha. Raphael left Simon's side for just a moment and returned with a bottle of wine and three glasses. Wanting to ease the tension a little. Plus, this was usually the time of day when Raphael would enjoy a last glass of wine and whatever book he was currently reading. Jace made a pleased noise when he was handed a glass. Only after Raphael sat down opposite Jace did Simon also sit down, next to his mate.
"I assume you didn't just come here to tell us you're an omega," Raphael's voice was calm.
Always so calm and collected, it was so hard to rattle Raphael. How was he that calm while Simon was totally losing his mind over how delicious Jace smelt? Was this because Simon was still getting used to being a vampire – it had been less than a year that he'd been turned, and at times he still struggled with his strength and heightened senses, so to him this was even more overwhelming?
"Well, no. I did think we could go over the… general logistics of things," Jace sipped his wine and tilted his head. "If you don't mind. And you getting me wine instead of holding the door open to see me out tells me we can have that conversation now?"
"Considering Simon's… reaction… to your scent, I think it would be a good idea if he gets a chance to get used to your new scent. In a safe and isolated environment, here in our home, instead of… the next time he comes to the Institute or worse yet when you are on a mission together, so I would like you to stay a little longer, if you don't mind."
Aw, that was so considerate of Raph. Simon leaned in to nuzzle his mate's cheek softly.
"I don't mind, these are technically work-hours for me," Jace grinned, lifting his glass playfully, before showing a more professional expression. "So, how this is gonna work is actually pretty simple. I will be your contact for everything. You have any kind of trouble that you need a Shadowhunter on, you call me. Even if it's a bigger-than-one-person problem, I'm responsible for your problems so I'd be assessing the situation and putting together a team. You have any kinds of complaints, ideas, worries, you can come to me with them. The whole idea of this liaison thing is to… build trust between Shadowhunters and Downworlders and part of that is making you feel heard and seen, giving you guys one person who you can come to, who also knows about your issues, instead of feeling like you're just being handed off and have a rotating door of Shadowhunters come deal with vampire problems."
"I do like that," Raphael noted after a moment.
"If you give me your phones, I'll give you my number, you can call me any time, though… obviously, I won't come running straight away at all times. We do have shifts that end at one point of the day and I actually have… days off now," Jace made a bit of a face at that. "Part of that whole taking-better-care-of-myself deal that I had to make with my parabatai. "So, if it's not an issue that can wait a couple hours or a day, if it's an emergency or something pressing, say so in your text and I'll either… do extra hours or send someone else in my place."
"You're having days off? You?" Simon raised his eyebrows. "How did Alec force that onto you?"
Jace huffed out a laugh at that and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, bit of… self-care, you could say. Been seeing a…" Jace paused, as though he was considering if this was saying too much. "I've been talking to a therapist since the war ended. Actually taking days off seems to be important, and Alec agrees on that, he'd been overhauling the system from the inside since he became head."
"A therapist?" Simon was unable to hide his surprise.
Tilting his head, Jace leaned more against the backrest of the couch, lounging even more. "I honestly don't know how much of that you really… caught… during the war, you had enough problems of your own to deal with I guess, but yeah. Between my dead father returning and revealing himself to be Valentine Morgenstern and everything he did to me during the war, including actually murdering me, I… yeah. Luke took me aside, when all calmed down a little, and he picked up a conversation we had during the war already."
Simon made a small noise. Right. He wasn't the only one who had died in the past year. And of course was he aware of the major things that Jace had been through – they had been kind of central to this war, after all, and Simon had also been in the middle of them. It was more the idea of Jace seeking out help. Jace, who kept recklessly rushing ahead, with no regards to his own life, Jace, who'd worked without sleep to try and find Jonathan. He wasn't exactly the ask-for-help type. Or at least he didn't strike Simon as the ask-for-help type, but then Simon and Jace had never been overly close, they'd worked together, sure, and yes, Simon knew more about Jace's trauma than a total stranger would, he supposed, but still he wouldn't call them friends exactly.
"Not to… pry into things that aren't my business, but considering what I just shared… What about you?" Jace furrowed his brows as he regarded Simon. "You died. And then you nearly died again, when Valentine slit your throat in an attempt to traumatize Clary."
"Oh yeah, that was fun," Simon made a face. "I'm. You know. Honestly, the clan's helping me a lot. I mean, everyone here has died before. And many have also suffered… different kinds of trauma. So we have kind of group meetings. Not every clan-member attends, but some people do want to talk about it, and talk about it with someone who understands."
He subconsciously reached for Raphael's hand, because his boyfriend had been visiting the grief group very frequently ever since his sister Rosa had passed. Vampires, especially the older ones, had so much loss and they needed to work through that too, it did help to talk to those who understood. Simon had had recurring nightmares about being buried alive for months, but talking to other newer vampires – and even some older ones who were still haunted by it too – helped him.
"Good," and Jace looked very genuine about it. "I… have never really asked for help before, so I didn't know how much easier things can be when you ask for help. So… I'm glad you have help too. I'm a soldier, I was raised and trained for a life of trauma and violence. You weren't."
Huh. This Jace was going to take some getting used to. A Jace who was more in tune with his feelings, because he was actually doing some acting talking about his feelings. Simon didn't know what to do with that. It was way better to just be physically attracted to a hot asshole than to have him show that no actually, being an asshole was just what he did to keep people at arm's length due to all of the trauma and childhood abuse he had suffered. Conceptually, Simon had been aware that that was what Jace was doing, even during he war – someone as amazing as Izzy or Clary wouldn't be liking Jace if Jace had genuinely been an asshole – but toward Simon, Jace always put that wall of snark up. To keep him away, because Simon was a stranger.
"Having been trained to be a soldier doesn't mean you deserve what happened to you," Raphael's voice was surprisingly soft and his words surprised Simon even more.
And he wasn't the only one surprised, considering the look on Jace's face. Though the Shadowhunter schooled his features after another moment, looking away from the couple.
"Yeah," Jace smiled, a sad and twisted expression. "Just, for the record, I don't go around advertising the fact that I go to therapy. I'm just… You guys will have to rely on me and I want you to know that you can rely on me, that I'm… not as much of a fucked up mess as I was last time we saw each other. I mean, I'm not… magically fixed. But I'm better."
It had honestly not even occurred to Simon to worry about that, he'd been so happy to hear he was going to see Jace more regularly now – and he knew Jace was a good Shadowhunter, had seen it first-hand during the war, after all. With a glance at Raphael, he saw that it might have occurred to his mate though. Huh. Then again, Raphael was better at considering such angles.
"We all have baggage," Raphael spoke evenly.
"Yeah," Jace huffed. "You could say that, I guess."
"So—o, that whole self-care thing is that why you decided to, you know," Simon motioned vaguely toward Jace. "Getting off your suppressants? Or wait, is that rude of me to ask?"
"A bit," Jace raised one eyebrow, but he didn't look mad. "But I don't mind. I mean, we've known each other for over a year now. You're right, it is kind of… part of that 'self-care thing'. I'm… trying to leave my father's teachings behind. Valentine's teachings behind. And one of them was that omegas are worthless. Trying to pass as a beta was… always him. And I want to leave him behind. I want to… I want to be me, now what he wanted me to be."
Raphael masked his surprise by focusing on his wine, taking a very slow drink from it. He'd heard about this from Magnus, somewhat. That Alec was so relieved his parabatai was seeking help, was trying to get in tune with his feelings and all. It seemed that had not been an exaggeration. Raphael took another drink from his wine. Learning more about Jace wasn't entirely what he wanted. Especially not things that made him feel sympathetic toward the Shadowhunter. The abuse had always been something… implied, so to speak. Valentine was Valentine and Raphael had seen what the man had done during the war, had heard about the abduction, so it wasn't a far reach to assume the man had abused his son as a child. Still, hearing it was something different.
"Aside from contacting you when we have an emergency, what else can we expect from this?"
It seemed easier to talk about business right now than to push more into Jace's private life. And Jace seemed relieved about that too. Being more in tune with his emotions didn't exactly mean he wanted to talk about it all the time, it seemed. Raphael couldn't help but smile a little.
"That depends entirely on you," Jace offered. "How much contact you want. If you like, we can arrange regular check-ins, I drop in once a week or once a month or however frequent you want, so we can talk shop. So you can update me on things with the clan and I can update you on anything from the Clave, be that… rulings, potential threats in the city at the moment – so you can watch out for your clan too. Alec wants a good relation between the Institute and each fraction of the Down World. Respect, trust, being able to rely on each other. Better understanding each other."
Simon furrowed his eyebrows. "What does that mean?"
"There's…" Jace licked his lips, careful with his words. "There are still a lot of prejudices. I think the war has shown that quite well. I know our last head of the Institute… tortured you, Raphael. I heard from your dad, when I was still living with him."
Surprise flashed across Raphael's face, not so much about Jace knowing about the torture – he had assumed the Shadowhunters knew, one way or another – but about Jace calling Magnus his dad. He was, by anything but blood, but Raphael hadn't expected the Shadowhunter to be aware of this, or to… acknowledge it. Then again, if anyone knew about found families, it was Jace Lightwood.
Raphael smiled, the first time he showed more than a calm, neutral and professional front. And he had to admit, hearing the reason for this made him more open to the arrangement. Shadowhunters looked down on Down Worlds, it had led to a lot of violence and aggressions toward them. But these Shadowhunters – Alec, mated to a warlock, Clary, with her werewolf father – knew more than most, and they wanted to broaden acceptance. Guess he was now stuck with this liaison, then.
Author's note: It's fun getting to write this ship in a more elaborate manner! Hence the early update :D Next chapter, we're gonna give them a chance to get to know each other better, particularly Raphael ;)