Broken Pasts (The Mortal Instruments Fanfiction)

Chapter 6: Taki's

Rose sat down on one of the metal benches of the weapons room. She breathed out. She was finally alone. No mundies to annoy her for a while.

“Rose!” Alec called out.

She cursed under her breath, “What!”

“We’re going to Taki’s, you coming?”

“Sure.” Rose smiled. She loved Taki’s, she would always go there with Jace and have a milkshake with him after training. She smiled, maybe things would be like that again.

Rose hurried down the corridor grabbing her leather jacket from her bedroom.

“Why are we going there any way?”

“Jace and Clary want to meet us.” Alec mumbled, looking down knowing Roses reaction.

The smile left her face. “Might as well get this over and done with,” Rose growled.

Alec shifted uncomfortable, “Be nice.”

“Can’t guarantee anything,” She said as she pushed out the door.

Alec sighed.

~

"Don't order any of the faerie food," said Jace, looking at Clary over the top of his menu. "It tends to make humans a little crazy. One minute you're munching a faerie plum, the next minute you're running naked down Madison Avenue with antlers on your head. Not," he added hastily, "that this has ever happened to me."

Rose raised an eyebrow and nudged Alec. She was forced to sit next to Alec not that she minded but that meant she was opposite Clary who was next to Jace.

 Alec laughed. "Do you remember—," he began, and launched into a story that contained so many mystifying names and proper nouns that Clary didn't even bother trying to follow it. She was looking at Alec instead, watching him as he talked to Jace. There was a kinetic, almost feverish energy to him that hadn't been there before. Something about Jace sharpened him, brought him into focus. If she were going to draw them together, she thought, she would make Jace a little blurry, while Alec stood out, all sharp, clear planes and angles.

Rose caught Clary’s stare and mouthed to her don’t say anything. Clary looked taken aback but Rose couldn’t risk Clary blurting out anything about Alec.

Jace was looking down as Alec spoke, smiling a little and tapping his water glass with a fingernail. She sensed he was thinking of other things. She felt a sudden flash of sympathy for Alec. Jace couldn't be an easy person to care about. I was laughing at you because declarations of love amuse me, especially when unrequited.

Clary looked up at Rose and understood what she was talking about. Rose didn’t want her to say anything because she knew Alec’s feelings for Jace were not mutual. Even though Alec had been nothing but rude to her since she arrived she couldn't blurt something like that out, she could never do that.

Jace looked up as the waitress passed. "Are we ever going to get any coffee?" he said aloud, interrupting Alec mid sentence.

Alec subsided, his energy fading. "I…"

Clary spoke up hastily. "What's all the raw meat for?" she asked, indicating the third page of her menu.

"Werewolves," said Rose.

 "Though I don't mind a bloody steak myself every once in a while." Jace said as he reached across the table and flipped Clary's menu over. "Human food is on the back."