City of Time

After All Here You Are (Part II)

CLARY POV

I was putting the last of the dishes away, when I heard Jace coming down the stairs. I went out to the hall. He smiled at me. I looked him over. About six of the top buttons on his shirt were undone, which made me roll my eyes. I moved closer to him. My hands reached out, to fasten the buttons.

"What? Are you not enjoying the view?" he asked, as his hands closed around my wrists.

"I am, Mr. Herondale, it's just that very 'elderly' woman, as you say, is coming to visit us, and I don't want her to do from shock."

"Hmmm, you make a convincing argument, but I'm pretty sure she's put me in her will, so it wouldn't be the end of the world," Jace smiled.

"Jace!" I exclaimed, just as there was a knock at the door.

"Nooo," Jace groaned," I liked where this was going."

"If you thought that you were going to get lucky, then you were very wrong."

"Well, there's always later," he whispered, as he let go of my wrists

I turned to walk towards the door. I was about to unlock the door, when I thought better of it. I looker back at Jace.

"Finish buttoning up your shirt," I said.

"No," he beamed, as he began to undo the remaining buttons," I think I'll go shirtless.

"Jace," I warned.

He slowly slipped the shirt of. I shot Jace an annoyed look. He was impossible.

"Fine. Go shirtless. I'm not the one who's going to be cold."

"I'm just showing off what the Angel gave me."

"Well, the Angel gave you different sized nipples," I told him, squinting," Now put your shirt back on."

His eyes widened, and he looked down at his chest. I smiled to myself. He was going to have fun with that. There was another knock. I turned back, and opened the door. Tessa smiled at me.

"I'm sorry it took so long," I apologized," Jace is having a little fashion crisis. He seems to be unable to keep a shirt on."

"Well, he's a Herondale, so that sounds about right," I heard Jem say from behind her.

I laughed and motioned for her them to come in. I saw Tessa's eyes widen unexpectedly, at the same time that Jem's gaze softened. When I turned to see what she was looking at I saw Jace standing mid way up the stairs, clutching his shirt to his chest, with a look of hurt sadness on his face. You would have thought something much more serious had happened.

"Really, Jace?" I said, as I closed the door, and locked it," Get over it."

"You insulted me, Clary! Insulted me!"

"Okay, we're going to go into the living room now," I said, turning to Tessa and Jem.

I began walking towards the other room. I turned back to see if they were following me. They weren't, so I nodded towards the living room. Tessa sighed, and Jem smirked. Then they both went before me, into the living room.

"When you're done with your little toddler tantrum you can join us."

I then left him. In the time they had been alone, Tessa and Jem had made themselves comfortable on our sofa. They looked up at me expectantly.

"Sorry about that," I apologized.

"It's fine Tessa laughed," He reminds me of Will."

Only a splint second after she laughed he face fell a little. I could tell that it saddened her. How could it not? She had been married for almost sixty years. No amount of time could ever take away the pain of losing him. Not even Jem would be able to ever do that fully, though I would never say that out loud.