Their Souls Entwined

An Important Conversation

The room slowly swam into focus as Clary blinked her eyes open; sunlight poured in through the windows, catching on everything from the tip of her stele to the edge of Jace's seraph blade. Closing her eyes again, Clary snuggled against Jace's body, his chest delightfully warming her back. He stirred slightly, pulling her closer so their bodies fit together perfectly; this close she could feel his breath tickling the back of her neck. "Hi," he said softly. Clary didn't say anything, instead, she turned in the circle of his arms and buried her head in the crook of his neck. Jace smiled and ran his fingers through her hair, "Don't want to get up yet?" he murmured. "No," Clary mumbled, "Can we just stay here for a little longer?" she asked him. "We can stay here for as long as you like," he remarked, "We'll just tell Izzy that I'm sick and to bring us food, that way we don't even need to leave the bed." Clary laughed quietly; she was about to tell him that there was no way Izzy would buy that story when there was a knock at the door. Jace, annoyed by the interruption, spoke in a stern voice as he pulled the covers up over Clary and himself, "Who is it?" A familiar cheerful-sounding voice came from behind the door, "It's Simon,". Jace put on his most uninterested voice, "What do you want, Simon?" he asked. "Good morning to you too," Simon replied, "Izzy asked if Clary can come to her room, and I need to speak to you," he said. Jace scowled, "I'll meet you in the Ops centre in 20 minutes," he responded. They heard Simon's receding footsteps and then was silence; Clary lifted her head and looked at Jace with a sad expression. Jace propped himself up on his elbows and brushed his nose against hers, "Just two more days," he said, "And then it's just you and me." Clary smiled at this, and then kissed him quickly, before climbing out of the bed and heading into the bathroom.

***

"If you're having second thoughts about asking me to be your best guy or whatever, too bad, you can't take it back now," Jace said as he walked towards Simon. Simon gave him a puzzled look, "You mean best man, and no it's not about that." Simon had asked Jace if he wanted to be his best man about a week after him and Izzy had gotten engaged. At the time, Jace had been completely knocked off guard, it had been almost a year since he had lost Clary, he had grown close to Simon in that time, but he hadn't expected this. "If you have no one else to ask, I'll do it out of pity," he had said then, though deep down he was quite honoured that Simon had asked him, and he also knew that if Clary had been there, she would have been really happy. "If you're about to tell me that you don't want to marry Izzy anymore, then wait while I get some popcorn; Izzy is going to beat the crap out of you, and there is no way that I'm going to miss that," Jace smiled proudly as he spoke about his warrior sister. "No, it's not that," Simon snapped, "It's about the stag party; I don't want anything over-the-top, just some drinks at The Hunter's Moon with you, Alec, Magnus and Luke." Jace narrowed his eyes, "This is what you interrupted my morning to talk to me about? Look that's fine, I hadn't planned anything big anyway," he replied. Simon gave Jace a big smile, "Great!" he said. After his conversation with Simon, Jace texted Magnus, asking him if he could portal Jace to the loft in Alicante. He had been meaning to speak with Alec for a while now, especially since he was about to make one of the biggest decisions of his life.

"Drink?" Magnus asked, turning to Jace who was sitting on the couch in the loft living room. "I'm alright thanks, it's a bit early for me," Jace replied before he picked up Chairman Meow; the cat purred softly as Jace scratched behind its ears. Magnus made himself a mimosa and sat down on a plush overstuffed armchair. Jace removed his chain that held his Herondale family ring and studied the pattern of herons etched into it; the chain had become quickly familiar, and now his neck felt odd without it. He was silent for a couple of minutes before he spoke, "Magnus, I was wondering, is it possible for the iron sisters to forge new family rings?" Magnus gave him a curious look, "You want a new Herondale ring?" he said, but upon seeing Jace's expression, he corrected himself, "You want a Fairchild ring." Jace blushed ever so slightly but it was enough of an answer for Magnus, who clapped his hands over his mouth and jumped up from his seat, just as Alec walked in. Alec looked from Magnus' excited expression to Jace's slightly bashful one, "What's happened," he said as he came over and greeted Magnus with a kiss. Magnus flashed him a wide grin before composing himself, "I will leave Jace to tell you, I'll be right back," he said before he strode out of the room. A confused look passed over Alec's face, "Uh okay," he responded turning to his parabatai. Jace stood up and a small smile spread across his face as he spoke, "I'm going to ask Clary to marry me."

Jace spent the rest of the day at the loft; Magnus had been nonstop talking about the wedding, whilst Alec had been reminiscing on some of his favourite memories of Clary. After what had felt like an incredibly long day, Jace returned home to New York. Clary was already asleep when he entered their bedroom, so Jace as silently as he could crawled under the covers. She was sleeping on his pillow; something she did when he wasn't home yet. He had once asked her why she liked his pillow so much, and she had told him that, "it has a Jace scent", lemon with a hint of his aftershave. He had laughed then and said it was creepy, but really, he had found it incredibly adorable. So now, here she was, her face resting on one hand, the other hand outstretched, reserving his place beside her. He very gently took her outstretched hand, entwining his fingers with hers, and nestled close to her. A surge of excitement rushed through him then as he looked at her; soon she was going to be his fiancé, and eventually, she was going to be his wife.