Who: Clary and Jace What: Modelling, flirting and talking...not necessarily in that order ;-) Where: A park When: Late April Rating: PG Status: Complete
Clary was set up in the park waiting for Jace to arrive. She gazed at the lake in front of her and imagined Jace looking gorgeous posing in front of the shimmering water. The weather was glorious and she couldn’t wait to see him. To paint him.
The last round of dreams were still a little unsettling for Jace, and he had been a little distant as a result. He was starting to get a better grip on the issue at hand when he agreed to meet Clary. He had missed her, and he definitely didn’t want this to change their relationship. The dreams were not their reality, after all. “Hey,” he said, with his usual lopsided grin. He dropped next to her and put his head on her shoulder. This was definitely better.
Clary smiled as she felt his head drop onto her shoulder and leant her own on his. “Hey there handsome, where ya been?” she reached out and took hold of his hand, rubbing her thumb along the back of it.
“Working - mostly. We are training a lot too,” he said. That sounded lame. He knew it did. “I had some weird dreams.” That was more of the truth. The dreams had made him pause and think entirely too much. He was still waiting for the next installment, for someone to tell him that they were not true.
“It’s going to be fine though. We are us. We didn’t really have our dream lives.” It was a repeated thought in the last few weeks. “So, where do you want me?” He arched a brow, dropping a kiss on her cheek.
“That’s a loaded question if ever I heard one,” Clary teased, a grin spreading across her face. “I want you here for now, talk to me about your dreams. What’s happened in them for you?” she asked, concerned that they were bothering him so much. “We’ve not talked about them much,” she shrugged.
Jace shrugged and smiled. “Well, it was also a nonspecific question. I like to keep our options open.” He was going to stand, but stayed seated when Clary asked him about the dreams. His face shifted a little bit. “Yeah, those. You know who your father is, right?” He cringed a little at the thought of the man. He could see the conflict in his dream self, however, he did know what side he belonged on.
“I...my father?” Clary frowned in confusion. “Yeah, he was a soldier who died abroad before I was born, why do you ask?” she ran her gaze over his face to watch the beautiful planes of his face move in the sunlight.
“No,” Jace said, shaking his head. “Get there first though, and then we’ll talk about it.” At first, he had wanted to tell her, but then he understood all about his dream self. He didn’t want to lose Clary, and he certainly didn’t have brotherly feelings for her. In their real life, he didn’t have to worry about that. They weren’t even related, case closed. He wanted to be with her.
“Let’s table that. Your friend Simon is kind of interesting. He’s around, isn’t he?” Jace was a little offended that Clary and Simon were kind of dating. He knew they weren’t really anything that Jace and Clary were, but he still didn’t like it. Simon had also changed - quite a lot.
“You sure? You’ve got me worried now,” Clary frowned at him. “Um...yeah, Simon’s here. He’s got his own place with a pool and everything, why do you ask?” she pulled his hand into her lap and ran her hand up and down his arm soothingly.
He really couldn’t help leaning on her, letting her comfort him. He made a decision not to let the dream twist affect them here. It would make him miserable not to be here. “Well, Simon and you kind of started dating in the dreams, at least for a little while.” Simon was also a vampire, but he didn’t say that just yet. That was going to be pretty rough on her both in dreams and in reality if they were as close as they were in the dreams. “You and I were having some issues, but that is NOT going to affect us here.”
"Simon and I dated?!" Clary asked in surprise, almost pulling away from him, but very much enjoying the contact. "That's ridiculous, he's my best friend," she brought his hand up so she could kiss his knuckles. "What kind of issues?" she asked, concerned that he felt the need to mention them. They must have been worrying him.
Her reaction made Jace laugh. That was exactly what they were in the dreams, even if they tried dating. Simon wasn’t him. He sat up fully, still grinning and pulled her lips to his. That kiss could truly make him forget about everything else that was going on. He broke it out of necessity to breathe. “You and Simon were always good friends. It wasn’t more than that.” He kissed her again, both because he wanted to, and because he didn’t want to talk about the dreams. That question was a hard one to answer.
Clary let herself get lost in Jace’s kiss, panting a little against his mouth as he spoke some words. She wasn’t entirely sure what he was talking about, but it couldn’t have been too important because he kissed her again and nothing else really mattered. They lay down, still kissing, with Clary lying against his side. She propped herself up on her elbow, fingers of that hand playing into his hair while she lay the other on his chest. The only awkward thing was her hair kept getting in the way.
He gladly fell back on the blankets, letting everything else go. It had been a couple weeks since they had seen each other and he hated the distance. His hand ran down from her face, down her side to rest at her hip. He looked up at her, and he knew that whatever the dreams brought, they would not affect them here. “I’ve been working on my runes. They are pretty good now,” he smiled. He moved his shirt to the side. “This one is for strength.” It rested against his collarbone. He had used the stele on himself to trace it. “I have one on the other side for speed.”
Clary gazed down at the rune he uncovered. She brought her hand up and gently traced her fingertips over the black Mark, standing out starkly against his pale skin. “Do they still hurt?” she asked quietly, fingers still moving over his skin.
Jace smiled up as her. He liked the feel of her fingertips against his skin. They were soft and cool, and yet made him a little warmer. “No,” he said, shaking his head, wishing they were all over his body. He tended to stick with the upper regions that were easy to reach and see in the mirror as he applied them. “They only sting for a few minutes when you put them on and then it goes away. I did a lot of testing on myself.” His hand went up to her hair. “Aren’t you supposed to be drawing me? Not that I mind you being right here.”
“Is that a complaint?” Clary asked with a grin, fingertips still lightly tracing the Marks on his chest.
“No, never a complaint. It’s more of a wish that we were at home in my room. I’d be more than happy to show you all of them.” They had taken things slow, gotten into a few heated moments, but he was definitely ready to take it to the next level. However, out in public did make that a little harder.
Clary blushed and grinned at him. She ducked her head a little as she played with the collar of his shirt. “Then it’s a shame we’re not in your room,” she flirted quietly, grin still on her face. She knew on some innate level that Jace wanted to move their relationship on, but wasn’t sure she was ready yet. Her Dreams were unsettling and she hoped that soon there would be some sort of reprieve soon so she and jace could move on. She ran her gaze over his face, fingers stroking the side of his neck and the underside of his jaw and all she could think about was how much she wanted to kiss him again and forget about the world. “I’m not going to get any painting done today am I,” she joked, lying down with her head on his chest and her body pressed up along his, a leg slung over one of his.
“Not like this, no,” he laughed. He wanted her. There was no denying it. Being alone was so damn tempting. He knew she wanted to wait, but that was so very hard at times, especially like this. Behind a closed door it was even worse. He was trying to be patient and understanding. “You could show me how - ummm, to paint.” His head dropped to kiss her again, unable to distract himself enough to refocus his attention from her lips.
Clary laughed against his lips, cupping his face with one hand as she did and stroking her thumb along his jaw as she did. “I can teach you how to paint,” she murmured against his lips, a grin on her face. She placed another kiss to his lips. Soon. She wouldn’t be able to keep her hands off him for much longer but she just needed a little more time to enjoy this.
“Paint, yes, something like pain, but with a T on the end.” Yes, that pain. He had to find something else to think about. He gave her a couple more kisses anyway, and then moved, pushing himself up, raking his arms down her slim body as he went. Really, she was perfectly his type, trim and athletic, not overly curvy like the Kardashian things on TV. He was not into all of those curves. Pulling his eyes away, he took her pad. “Do I get to see what’s here first? New stuff? Me?”