For ByTheAngelIsThatWillHerondale, also known as everythingisbetterwithabook, because it is her birthday, and she is awesome.
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The speakers pounded louder with every passing minute, goading the troupe of young friends from their place in the club. Two dark haired siblings, one golden haired boy. They stood to the side, nursing the drinks in their hands, watching the as the rest of Pandemonium danced and drank the night away.
"I'm bored." Isabelle pouted.
"So dance." Alec answered, not willing to admit that he too was bored.
Isabelle sent a withering stare at her brother, but forced her pink cocktail into his hands, "accidentally" spilling some of it down his shirt. "Fine," she spat at him, moving away from the wall and grabbing the arm of the first boy she came across, slinking onto the dance floor with a predatory gleam in her eyes. Isabelle was known for getting what she wanted, and from the look on her face, tonight would be no exception.
Alec lifted her drink to his lips and tossed it back, grimacing at the fruity flavor. "Looks like Isabelle will be getting some tonight after all." He said bitterly. "Jace, can we just go? I'm sick of this place. I've got a headache." He downed the remainder of his bourbon and signaled a waitress to take away the glasses.
"No, now shut up. I'm trying to concentrate." Jace lifted the whiskey to his perfect mouth and took a swig, swallowing the sting and scanning the dance floor once more. She had to be here. "And stop pouting."
Alec didn't exactly follow Jace's instructions, but he did order another drink, underage laws be damned.
Jace looked around again, praying to whoever was listening that she would be here. He wanted to see her. He needed to see her. She always came to Pandemonium at this time on Saturdays, and if she didn't show up tonight, Jace would go crazy. He needed to touch her, hell; he needed to know her name. He would stay all night if he needed to.
Minutes passed, and Jace grew more and more anxious. Finally, he could breathe. She was there, not fifteen feet from where he stood, and she glanced at him. Jace's heart stopped for a moment before he pushed away from the wall and handed his drink to Alec, who expressed his displeasure at being the end-table for the evening, and took three steps towards her before the sniveling, brown haired boy that she was always with appeared at her side with a drink that looked suspiciously like club soda. Jace managed to keep the snarl that was building in his throat at bay and stalked the rest of the way toward her. When he reached her, the boy looked at him, startled, as Jace wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled at her, whispering in her ear in a low, sexy whisper, "Dance with me, Red." She looked at him, not scared, but curious, and Jace very nearly kissed her right then and there.
She nodded and followed him, grasping his hand as she turned apologetically to her friend, who now sported a hurt look.
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"What's your name?" Jace said in her ear, his hands on her hips as pressed her back even closer to his chest.
"Clary. You?"
"Jace."
Clary (a perfect name for her, Jace thought to himself) turned suddenly in his arms, red curls flying in a circle around her before dropping back to frame her face like the edging of a painting. "I've seen you here before, and I've seen you watching me. Why?" She quirked an eyebrow at the question, but wrapped her arms around Jace's neck and moved her hips to his to compensate.
Jace smirked, but answered honestly but only after throwing a quip at her: "You're cute. I like cute." Clary snorted, looked over Jace's shoulder to check on Simon, and Jace finished. "I don't know. You intrigue me. I need to get to know you."
Clary shook her hand and turned back around, still keeping her hands on his as she continued dancing. "No one needs to know me."
Jace leaned down and whispered in her ear, "I do." Clary rolled her eyes as Jace's hands crept higher, spanning her stomach, then over her arms to her shoulders and back down, enticing and drawing her in. "I want to get to know you. I want you."
"Nobody wants me," Clary said quietly, but Jace heard.
"I do." He whispered back. "Tell your friend to go home and then leave with me."
"Not that kind of girl," she answered, rubbing her behind against his hips, eliciting a moan to fall from his lips.
"You're killing me, Red." He leaned down again, resting his forehead on her shoulder, "But come with me anyway. We'll just," he paused, knowing that what he was about to say would sound like a line, "talk."
"My name is Clary," she started, pausing when he interrupted by saying that he liked "Red" better, "and that sounds rather sketchy." Clary leaned back into him once more and smiled.
"No, no sketch here. Just plain old honest Jace." He put his lips at her ear again, speaking loudly over the music, "Come home with me. Or if not, just leave the club and go somewhere with me."
Clary turned to him once again, staring him down, trying to get a read on him. "I have a superpower, you know." Jace smiled and raised an eyebrow. "It's true. I can tell when people are telling me the truth or not."
"And?" Jace asked with a quirked lip.
"You seem to be telling the truth," Clary admitted.
Jace pulled her in again, securing her against his chest. "So it's a deal, then?"
Clary looked up at him trustingly before laying her ear against his heart. "It's a deal then."
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Clary had never spent the night with a boy. Luke didn't count, of course, and Simon, well, he was a special case. The one night that they'd spent together was fumbling and awkward, both of them just trying to get their virginity out of the way, but neither of them actually able to go through with the final deed. It would never happen again – both had agreed – not wanting to ruin their friendship with unskilled fingers and lips. But Jace – he was different.
She wanted to get closer to him, get to know him on the most intimate, most basic level. As it turned out, Jace was no different from her. Oh, he was completely different, but they were one and the same. Broken families, broken hearts. Tattoos and alcoholic beverages.
They talked, for hours and hours, and when words were exhausted, Jace spread his jacket out on the cold concrete, laid her down, and covered her body with his. He kissed her lips, her nose, eyelids, ears, jaw, eyes appraising her with such an intense gaze that she felt her walls crumbling, while she laid bare beneath him, her inmost soul was bared to him.
When dawn struck, Clary moved to stand up, reaching for her discarded dress and boots as the very first rays of the sun peeked through the concrete jungle to reach their perch on the roof of Jace's apartment building. He caught at her hand. "Stay," he begged.
"I can't." Clary answered.
"Please," he breathed.
"I'll come back," she promised, not wanting to leave this beautiful, broken boy.
Jace tugged her palm to his mouth and pressed a soft kiss to the skin of her palm.
"Please." He simply stated.
"I will." She answered once more.
Clary pulled free of his grasp and turned to walk away, wrapping her arms around herself to keep warm. She paused at the door to the stairs that lead the way to the street and back to her reality and looked back to Jace, who had reached into his pocket and pulled a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. "Hey, Jace," Clary called softly, "Did I just become your girlfriend?"
Jace's smile lit up his face as he slowly nodded. "Yeah, yeah I think you did, Red."
Clary smiled back at him, the corners of her mouth curving gently as she said only one word: "Good."
She turned to the door and was gone.
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You can decide for yourself if they actually do end up together.