Safe Place | j.h

12: Okay

Emery was in the gym. Practicing hand to hand combat. Her hands coming into contact with anything that was near her. After her talk with Clary she was avoiding both Clary and Jace. Whenever either of them came into the room Emery would leave the room.

It was stressing her out. She knew it was dumb but she knew that Clary had told Jace about what she had said. Clary didn't owe it to her to keep it to herself.

So she trained harder. Pushing herself more and more each time she was in the gym. Running for hours. Shooting for hours. Sparing with a dummy for hours.

"You look like you could use a sparing partner." Emery froze, closing her eyes for a moment before going back to working out. Ignoring Jace who was standing by the wall.

Jace wasn't sure what he had done wrong. Clary was ignoring him, giving him the silent treatment. And when he went to go hangout with Emery she kept blowing him off, without a word. It was insane, and he wasn't even sure what he had done to make them both so mad.

"Awe come on Emery we don't even have to talk." Jace said, moving to the opposite side of the dummy she was hitting. Emery had yet to make eye contract with him, forcing herself to not look at him. "Just hit me." Jace said with a smile wide across his face.

Emery swung her leg out and connected it to Jaces shoulder. Jace moved back with the impact, then pushed back. Emery rolled backwards before punching outward towards his face. Jace moves, realizing suddenly that Emery wasn't thinking straight. She wasn't trying to beat him, she was just trying let out some steam.

"Emery stop." His face dropped suddenly, he caught her leg as she swung it at him once again. She ignored him and continued to come at him, she got increasingly frustrated as he continued to stop her from landing a blow on him. "Emery stop." He told her again, watching her face face start to crumble. Jace held her arms to her sides, she slowly stopped fighting against him before looking down at her feet.

They stood there for a few minutes before she looked up from her feet. For the first time in weeks she looked at him. Jace and his big golden puppy eyes made her weak. Her heart rate was starting to slow down before she looked into his eyes. His eyes were what got her. All the time.

"You can let go now." Emery mumbled. Jace let his arms drop from her shoulders, crossing his arms over his chest now. Jace looked down at her, eyes wide and his hair barely covering one eye, he was smiling too.

Emery turned away from him, leaning against the sparing dummy with a sigh. She thought that coming back was going to be easy. That she would come back, and that her Izzy, Alec and Jace would all be the team they were before. Except there was Clary, Simon and a war that happened to them all.

"Can you talk to me?" Jace asked, moving around to the other side of the dummy. Emery seemed to be ignoring him again. "Come on Emery you just got back-"

"Did she tell you?" Emery asked with a sigh. Jace's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "I will take that as a no." Emery looked down at the tape that wrapped her hands. She started peeling the tape off of her hands slowly.

"Whatever it is I'm sure that it's not a big deal-"

"I'm in love with you." Emery said, Jace looked at her. His eyes were blank and his face matches. She looked at him, watching his face. She could see his eyes shifting. Emery could feel her stomach in her throat and was sure that if she tried to speak again she would throw up.

"Okay." Jace said slowly. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. Of course he cared about Emery, she was family. She had been there for him when his father died, when he came to New York. They understood each other. He had been upset when she left, without a word.

Emery laughed, it was like she had lost her mind. She was laughing like she had lost her mind. Laughing because he had responded to her with a single word. Four letting. With an okay.

"That's all you got?" Emery seethed, her voice harsh and rash. Her eyes were narrow and she looked upset.

Jace didn't know what to say. For once in his life he was at a loss of words. He just stared at her with his mouth slightly hung.

"Okay," Jace said, licking his lips, "so you're in love with me. I mean everyone is." He tried laughing, but she didn't laugh and she didn't even crack a smile. "Emery it this doesn't have to change who we are- how we act-"

"You know Jace it kind of does change things. You needed to know and I needed to get this off my chest so if we could never talk about this again that would be preferred." Emery said with a smile. Jace nodded carefully. Emery let out a deep breath. "So you wanted to spar?"

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A/n
Word Count: 895