Twisted Around a Promised Hand | Jace Wayland
Warnings; angst, includes smut, unprotected sex, arranged marriage
Jace stood next to Alec, a look of curiosity on his face as he offered a glance at his parabatai. He was hiding something, their bond suggested such a secret. Usually his friend would tell him all, they were practically brothers.
There was a bad feeling settling in the pit of the shadowhunters stomach, a part of him was screaming for him to leave his suspicions to rest, however he could not. It was not in his nature, it would defy his behaviour if he ignored the behaviour of Alec in peace.
Clearing his throat, the blonde finally caught the attention of the brunette, his hazel eyes snapping away from the part of the wall that they were caught on. “What is it?”
Alec asked, he could sense the repelling suspicion through their matching runes. Deep down, he knew that he couldn’t keep the arrangement from his friend forever, and nor could the other shadowhunter involved. They didn’t want to hurt him with the truth, despite it doing the same thing to the pair of them.
“You’re hiding something from me.” It wasn’t a question, it was a certain statement. He needn’t have had any ticks as confirmation, Alec’s shifting demeanour provided enough evidence. He was growing antsy at the persecution, he could tell.
“Leave it Jace, trust me, you don’t want to know.” All Alec wished to do was protect the young man that was practically his brother, he had always tried to do the same for him. But the predicament that he was webbed into was a difficult one, he wouldn’t have understood.
“I do.” Ever persistent, the blonde put his foot down, a frown forming upon the space above his eyes. The desire to keep the truth a secret was growing frustrated, he had felt the mood shift almost a week ago. And finally now he had the guts to speak up about the changing tide.
“Quit it, I’m not going to be the one to hurt you.” Alec had to lift his gaze away from his parabatai, even imagining his reaction was making him feel sick. He would no doubt be drowned in anger, corrupted by jealousy, carrying a broken and shattered heart in the tomb of his glamoured chest.
“Tell me, I can take it.” Demanded Jace, enforcing Alec to sigh. He was torn, he wanted to pass on the message first hand, but he was scared. The last thing that he wanted to do was lose his best friend. But he was stubborn, nothing had changed, and so Jace would never surrender until it was revealed in another way.
And that other way would be much much worse. It would be a mockery conducted by Maryse, who was ignorant to how her second son felt, continuing her conspiracies without him in the picture.
It was as though the woman didn’t care, and Alec doubted that the female Lightwood did. The family’s reputation came first, and it dwindling because of his father’s mistake.
“Fine.” It was an agreement he knew that he would regret, but truly he didn’t want to be forced through the procedure neither. There was someone else, someone he never expected to have felt anything for. He was mysterious, magical and showed interest in him, clearly confident with his own sexuality, which Alec had yet to grow into. But if he could spare the price of being pressed clad into an arrangement with a real friend, someone that he held dearly, he would let the whole world know.
And it wouldn’t be for him, if that was the route it all took. It was for her, his friend. She too was being crushed in this fulfilment of noble bloodlines, all uphold reputation. Her heart laid with someone else, Jace deserved to know that she didn’t want to be shipped off for a formidable price for their parents, she wanted the risk taker, the boy who had grown into a brave man. The soldier.
“I’m getting married.” The words fell from Alec’s mouth, but there was still more to be spoken. It was the heavier half, the other side that tried to grip onto his teeth rather than passing into air. But he released it nonetheless, regardless of how his mother would scold him for revealing too much too soon. “Me and (Y/N) are getting married, she’s to be my wife in a fortnight.”
“What?” Jace stumbled back, keeping steady to the surprise of his friend, shocked by the revelation. The girl, the only girl, that was for him had been promised to another, and worse than all, it was to his best friend. “You are kidding, aren’t you?”
“It’s to save the Lightwood name.” Even admitting the excuse made him feel guilty, Jace was as he had expected, unhappy with the sentencing. “I didn’t just get down on one knee and propose, it was arranged. I’d never do that to you.”
Yet he was still willing to marry the badass shadowhunter that had captured the heart of his friend, from the day of his 7th birthday. “It’s fine, you aren’t doing anything.”
None of it was fine, it was a tragic scenario. The knight hadn’t been the first to reach the princess’ tower, it instead was the vigilant archer, who commanded by the queen had taken her hand. “Don’t lie, you love her.” Silence enveloped the two, both knew that Alec had spoken the truth.
“Congratulations.” Jace spoke, before walking away, his shoulder hitting into the barrier of his friend’s own.
-
“You have to have a party!” Izzy encouraged, sitting upon (Y/N)’s bed, who instead stood by the window, watching the nightlife and lights of mundanes pass by. At her parabatai’s conclusion, (Y/N) sighed, turning to face her soon to be sister in law. “We can invite Clary, mundanes have this thing called a hen night. It’s where the women go out to celebrate the bride’s last day as a unkept lady.”
“I’m fine really, I need my sleep for tomorrow.” The bride insisted, a robe tightly tied around her body. It was one comfort that she was in need of, and the other had been Izzy’s company, but she was ready for her to leave before she brought up a touchy subject.
“It’s about Jace, isn’t it?” At the pause in the room, Izzy knew that it was. “(Y/N/N), I hate to say this gorgeous, but you’re not marrying him. We all appreciate the sacrifice that you are making for our family title, but you’ll be family, because you’ll be wed to Alec.”
“He hasn’t spoken to me since your brother told him about our engagement.” She sent her friend a sad smile before continuing her words, choosing to sit beside Izzy. “It’s been two weeks, tomorrow I won’t be me, I’ll be the wife of his best friend. What if he never speaks to me again? I can’t be ignored by him for the rest of my life, that’ll break my heart.”
Izzy’s hand came to rest over those of her parabatai, she knew that (Y/N) was conflicted, torn from doing the right thing. She unfortunately didn’t know what out of the complicated options was right, and what was wrong.
“Darling, if he doesn’t, then it might make the marriage easier, you won’t be pining for the one guy that took your first kiss, or drew your first rune upon your skin. That’s the past, and he knows that too, so if your heart hurts, know that his is cracked down the middle. He has been betrayed by the figure he saw as a mother, she orchestrated this ordeal, he doesn’t want to mention you to me, and Alec is the one marrying you. He feels as though he has lost everyone, he’ll fix up soon enough, it might be a week, a month, a year, but he’ll be fine. And if he is, then you can be too.”
“You always been this wise, or is improving with age?” (Y/N) asked, earning a small shove from her friend, causing her to let out her first laugh in days and days.
“Shut up and get your beauty sleep, you have a big day. No party, no drinks, tonight is yours, exactly how you want it.” She left a friendly kiss upon (Y/N)’s hand, before leaving the room, shutting the door behind her.
She was grateful for Izzy’s understanding, and her respect to give her the space that she required. There were so many things, mostly a certain shadowhunter that was dealing through his pain with distance, on her mind. She was to be wedded tomorrow, yet she still felt incomplete.
Her purpose was to be a pawn in projecting power for the Lightwoods, returning them to their former glory. The task gave a lot of pressure, but it the personal side of it was the worst. (Y/N) knew that she had missed out on something truly beautiful, instead she was forced to create a life with a man that she didn’t love in that way.
Perhaps her and Jace were never meant to be, it felt doomed considering the mess that (Y/N) found herself in the middle of. If there was an escape plan, she’d finish it, trailing away from the nightmare that she was to be met with the next day.
Ironically, there was a fist meeting the other side of her door, knocking in aversion of intruding. The list of possible guests wracked in her mind, it could truly be anyone. Alec said that he had wanted to set some ground rules before the wedding, such as how to act around people, and most importantly each other.
It could be Clary, wanting to check on you for clarification, to make sure that you were happy with your decision, or at least sure that you wanted to continue on the path. Izzy had already visited, so the chances of it being her were slim, unless she wanted to drag in a laptop and force you to watch the human creation of a movie, it wouldn’t be the first time.
The last person was the exact one that (Y/N) was met with when she twisted the handle and pulled the rectangle of wood back. Jace. He stood there, his hair rugged and messy, the way that she preferred it, wearing all black and a sombre expression.
She offered the man a shy smile, this was their first contact in what felt like forever. Her days without him had grown long, they dragged consistently and had no light of the half angel that she sought. As a shadowhunter, it was part of the job to work in the shadows, however the darkness had succumbed her, changing her mood, leaving her with nothing but shambles and regrets/
“Hi.” Was her breathy greeting, to which he reciprocated, equally as daunting. This felt like a large milestone, as though there was a ray breaking through the window, although in reality there wasn’t. It was only the basking moonlight reflecting on her white sheets, which pulled Jace into the room. She allowed him to come in, denying him no access to her privacy.
He could ask anything and she’d be more than willing to answer in a split second. She was still devoted to him, in spite of her circumstances, and the fact that they had hardly spoken in hundreds of hours.
“I wanted to see you, y’know, before your in a gold gown and all.” His eyes watched the spark ignite in her eyes once more, she felt alive now that he had returned to her. “I’m sure you’re going to look beautiful, Alec is a lucky man.”
“No he’s not.” (Y/N) dissected his words, her hand promptly reaching up to cradle Jace’s scruffy jaw. “He doesn’t want to marry me either, so I’d say he’s quite the opposite.”
“Well I think he is. If only I were really his brother, it’d be me in his shoes instead.” He bit his upper lip, causing (Y/N) to tug his face closer, their noses brushed against the crooks of one another. It was a peaceful notion, a source of comfort that both had been missing, yet needing.
“Then you wouldn’t be you.” The promised woman counteracted, her breath fanning over the lower half of Jace’s face. “I like you just the way you are.”
“I didn’t come here to get drawn in again, I came to congratulate you, belatedly as it is.” Yet he still made no movement to put space between himself and her, rather he pulled her closer, slipping the shoulder of her robe down, revealing her naked shoulder. “I remember when I drew this rune, you’d scraped your leg. You freaked, as you still are doing now by getting married to Alec, it healed you, however it can’t fix what’s happening now.”
“I have strict parents, you know that Jace.” She reminded him, (Y/N)’s hands tracing the muscles underneath his shirt, relishing in the warmth of his skin. “They always get what they want.”
“What about what you want?” His lips were a centimetre away from her own, she wanted nothing more than to strike them with her own, present her worthiness to him, show her love and passion through the locking of their mouths.
“It’s right in front of me.” Their eyes flickered to one another, impulsed by the natural urge, they soon were kissing. It felt like nothing had changed as of weeks ago, there were no quarrels, no arrangements, and most of all, no marriages.
“Tell me to stop, this is wrong.” Jace wanted nothing more than continue, but there was a voice in his head which told him that this was a bad idea.
“This is right, we’re right. It’s everyone else that is deluded by the real purpose of marriage, it isn’t for personal gain. It’s to be done when you want to be with someone for the rest of your life, you love your partner with a passion. There’s no one that can keep you away from them and sure as hell nobody that can replace them.”
“Marry me then.” Jace proposed, grasping (Y/N)’s hands exceedingly tight, almost as though he was that scared to let go, if he did that he wouldn’t get an answer. “Choose me.”
“There isn’t a choice Jace.” She told him. “I’ll always choose you, through all of eternity. You’re my forever, and you will be, forever.”
At her words, he pushed their bodies closer, as though they were both magnets, attracting one another’s poles. (Y/N) made quick work of her robe, untying the fabric to slip the fabric off, leaving her bare, as she had been when she had slipped the clothing item on, after having a cooling shower.
Jace wasted no time to ogle, instead he threw his shirt to the ground, and began unbuckling his belt, pulling his jeans and underwear down until he too was naked before her. “I love you (Y/N) (Y/L/N), so much.”
“I love you too Jace Wayland.” (Y/N) climbed atop of the blonde, adjusting her position so that she was able to sink down onto the flawless shadowhunter. At the feeling of being engulfed by her, Jace let out a moan, that had more following as (Y/N) chose to suckle on his neck.
Their bodies moved in sync, his hands on her waist, his hands gliding elegantly through her locks. It reminded them both of the values of love, (Y/N) knew that she had made a mistake to accept a proposal from anyone else, even if it had been her civic duty.
“I’m close.” She breathed beside his ear, nibbling gently on it to try and muffle some of her noises. Jace’s response to her orgasmic declaration was to thrust up into her faster, he too trying to stifle some of his moans as Izzy’s room was just next door, Maryse temporarily occupying the one opposite.
“I love you so much.” At his profession, she let go, he too joining her shortly after, pairing them both toghether in the state of bliss. He laid back, pulling her down with her as he remained inside of her, their panting slowly dying down.
“That was amazing.” (Y/N) sighed, content and satisfied, from not only their actions but their declarations to one another. “But I’m going to have to deal with Maryse and my parents in the morning, I want to marry you, not Alec or another shadowhunter.”
Jace slipped out of her, standing and throwing on his trousers, tugging his belt through the loops in a fast pace. “What are you doing?”
“Talking to Maryse, if she sees me as a son at all, she’ll allow me to be the one taking your hand rather than my parabatai.” Pulling his shirt over his head, Jace left the room, leaving (Y/N) to listen in on the discussion in the hallway.
