A/N: Just a short bit in Jace's point of view after Clary left Taki's in the Epilogue of "City Of Ashes". Read and review? Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own The Mortal Instruments or any of the characters.

Love Is A Battlefield

"Goodbye, Jace." Clary said, her face devoid of emotion as he freed her from his hold. He watched, confused, as she let her shoulders drop. Without a single look back, she strode through the door of Taki's, out of his sight.

The look on her face when she had told him goodbye- it was so full of sorrow. Why was she upset? Was it because of him? It couldn't be. He had just given her what she had wanted; he said he'd be nothing more than a brother to her. Did she not believe that he wouldn't stay true to his promise? Sure, he didn't swear on the angel, but it's not like he didn't want to. He just couldn't. No matter how much he wanted to swear that he would think of her as nothing more than a sister, he would be lying to her, as well as himself.

It was impossible for Jace to push his love for her away. He tried so hard but the feeling just wouldn't leave his system. The way Clary said goodbye had sounded strained to his ears, final. What had he done? Said?

"There's your take out." Kaelie, the pixie waitress said, placing her hand on his shoulder as she pointed back at the booth that he and Clary had been sitting in.

Jace just nodded not overly acknowledging her presence.

"What's wrong, Wayland? You look a little down." She said lightly, noticing his tortured expression. "Did you and the little one have a fight or something?"

Just then, his mind clicked. When he told Clary about their non-plutonic relationship starting from know on, she had said that it was what she wanted. Wanted. Past tense.

"She doesn't want it." He muttered under his breath. "She wants me- us."

Shaking Kaelie's hand from his shoulder, he bolted towards the front of the restaurant, leaving the pixie confused.

Throwing himself through the door, Jace stood in the middle of the sidewalk, turning his head from side to side.

"Clary?" He called out. "Clary?"

Her tiny frame was nowhere to be seen. She was gone.

A single tear made its way down his golden skin. Jace had her affection, and he lost it with a single sentence. Why did he promise her something he couldn't give her? Why could she believe his false intentions, but not his real ones?

Just as the hulking, black metal ship had been a few days ago, love was a battlefield.