Care Less - Jace Wayland/ Herondale x Reader
There was poison corrupting your veins. Looking back on it, your life before the recent days had been good. And now you were sure to die, away from Idris and the aid of Magnus.
Your vision blurred, and you smiled pitifully as you ran through your memories. A part of you felt guilty, knowing Izzy could feel your pain. But not for a second did you regret being her parabati. She would be searching for you right this second, but you were sure there were only minutes worth of life left in you.
Alec would have been begging for the high warlock’s help, sending out every shadow hunter to put a pin on your location, stressed as Jace would have been if he wasn’t too occupied with the new redhead. These past couple hundred hours, he had been. It seemed he preferred her company over yours, and a part of you couldn’t blame him for that.
The blonde had made you reckless. On missions your tactics were so similar that it worried a great many of your fellow shadowhunters. And now here you were, feeling the results of your careless mistakes.
You wanted to scream from the pain, but you were far too weak to release outrage and agony in such a way. Looking down you saw your blue turning blood pooling from the bite the creature had given to your ankle. You weren’t sure what it had been. it definitely wasn’t the vamp that had been reported.
The stele you carried with you was across the ‘room’. The thing had thrown you away from it, openly showing its desire for you to suffer, slowly at that. Without it, you couldn’t activate your healing rune. You were just filling with toxins, drowning in their menace.
Perhaps your ears were mistaken, but you could have sworn that there were footsteps echoing through the sewer. You hoped it would be another monster, one merciful enough to finish you off. If it was one of your associates, it was possible the mystery creature could get to them in the same way it had you.
Jace was all you could think about. If you were to have a final thought, you wanted it to be of that brave soldier, the one that had stolen your heart the second you had transferred. Thinking about him only made you wonder what the two of you could have been. Something great you hoped.
And now he had Clary. You couldn’t deny she was intriguing. She was new and beautiful, what wasn’t there for Jace to like? The only person who didn’t seem fond of her was Alec, but there was nothing unusual about that. He wasn’t the keenest on strangers, especially when they had free reign in the institute.
“I thought the report said it was a vampire.” Alec sighed disappointedly as Izzy and Jace walked by his side, Clary tagging along ‘for experience’. If it had been, you’d have had no trouble returning home.
“The information was obviously wrong.” Izzy stated desperately, leading the way. She had the strongest connection to you, and she trusted that it would help them find you. “Left.” And that was the route they went.
“Shouldn’t she have just dropped the assignment when she realised it wasn’t?” Clary questioned Jace, who in turn only shook his head. He knew what you were like. You’d never leave a mission unfinished, even if it was more dangerous than you had initially been told.
“That’s not how she works.” He partially blamed himself and the influence he had on you for your ignorant exterior. You could die, and it was as a result from his company.
By distancing himself, as Maryse had convinced him, you would be safer, and may stick to safer behaviour. Obviously the Lightwood woman had been wrong, you had only strayed further down the wrong path.
His time had been focused on training Clary rather than watching your every move as it once had been. He wanted to kick himself. It was no secret that you had become more invested with your shadowhunter duties, you may have even been working yourself too hard.
Izzy found a stele, your stele on the ground. Across from it was your body. She ran to it, noticing the spillage of blue that was pooling on the ground. “We’re going to need Magnus.”
Jace’s world felt like it was on the verge of collapsing. He ignored Clary’s questions. All he could see was you, laid there in a motionless sprawl. Before Alec could reach you, Jace walked past him, hoisting your form up into his arms. He wished you would care more.
As your eyes opened, it was a quick guess that you weren’t in the institute. Their infirmary had almost no personality, however Magnus’ abode was stifled with expression.
“Finally.” The warlock entered, touching your forehead with his palm. The rings on his hands were cold, and you appreciated the contrast in temperature against your skin. “We were all in a great worry.”
Quickly the warlock left, only to return with visitors. The three of them gave you relieved expressions.
“Don’t ever do that to me again.” Izzy scolded you, touching her parabati rune with a careful hand.
“Or any of us.” Her brother added, promptly thanking Magnus for his services.
“How’re you feeling?” The newcomer asked, which only made you frown and answer Clary with a diverting question.
“Where’s Jace?” Alec rubbed the back of his neck, having already predicted this would have plagued your mind eventually.
“He went to kill whatever almost killed you.” And that was where the two of you were alike. Now Jace was not only hunting it to punish it for the murders it had committed, but also for vengeance.
When you returned to the institute, Jace was awaiting outside. He was glowing in the glory of victory. He had killed the monster, single handily.
“Why did you go after it? It could have killed you!” This was the first time you ahd shouted at the blonde, but it felt nice to finally release all of the pent up anger you had been dealing with.
“I could care less about what could happen to me. It deserved to die, a simple thankyou would have sufficed.” Everyone soon scampered away, not wanting to witness the scene of two shadowhunters arguing. It was just you and Jace in the courtyard now.
“If you have to protect someone, protect your pretty girlfriend.” You tried to stalk your way inside like the others had, wanting to seek comfort from the pillow in your room that would soak up your tears, but Jace didn’t allow it. He grabbed your arm, pulling you back to him.
“What girlfriend?” He honestly did not know where this was coming from or of whom you were referring to.
“For angel’s sake, I’m talking about Clary!” Releasing your arm, Jace stepped back, shocked by your inaccurate observation.
“I could care less about Clary. The only girl I want is you.” Now it was your turn to be taken aback.
“You’re just saying that because I almost died.” At the mention of death, Jace winced. And then he spoke again.
“That’s far from true.” Before you could retort something back, he eased your anger by connecting your lips. His hands raked through your hair, keeping your faces attached. “You’re all I care about, (Y/N) (L/N) of Idris.”
You believed him, and his words. For the first time in all of your shadow hunting life, you could care less that you failed a mission.