New story! This was the most popular voted story when I asked you guys which one you would want posted up next, so I hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters.

It was actually pretty sad that his whole life seemed to fit into the fraying canvas bag that was strapped to the back of his motorcycle. He was twenty-three years old, and all he really had was his clothes, a few old photographs and, of course, his 2003 Harley-Davidson Dyna motorbike that he had saved practically every cent he could to buy a few years ago. Jace Herondale had never led a life where he had much in the way of material possessions, but it still felt a little painful as he drove away from the apartment building he had grown up in with only that one bag.

It was a cold night, and he was glad for the leather gloves he was wearing to stop the bite from the wind as he sped along the busy city streets. Even though it was almost two in the morning, New York was still completely alive. There were men and woman in outfits that clearly said they were out enjoying a night on the town, but then there were other men and woman who were dressed in suits or uniforms, working over time or night shifts.

This was all he had ever really known, and yet it didn't feel like home.

The fact that he didn't feel crushing sadness in his chest told him that he was doing was the best thing for him. He didn't feel upset about leaving behind the apartment, or the memories that he had there, because a majority of them weren't happy memories. And that place had never felt like somewhere that he was loved and safe.

There had only been one place, and a couple of people that he had ever felt even close to home, and that was where he was going now.

The drive itself was going to take him about three days, and that was if he was going to drive straight there. For the first time for as long as he could remember, he didn't have any obligations; no job that he needed to be at or responsibilities to meet. Maybe he would take a detour, take his time getting to Los Angeles and his cousins. Go sight seeing, or whatever it was that people who actually had time to go off and do things in their free time did.

He had resigned from his job two weeks ago, giving in enough notice so that he got his full holiday payout. He had sold everything he could from his and his mothers apartment so that he could put that money into his bank as well, and had then tidied the place up as best as he could so that he got back a majority of their security deposit, even though it had technically been under his fathers name. His father had been gone for years though, and thankfully the landlord had known that.

Jace drove for almost eight hours straight, only stopping once a little after six in the morning at a rest stop for something to eat for breakfast and to go to the bathroom. His ass was a bit sore and his hands were aching a little from where they had been clenched around the handlebars of his motorcycle. He ignored it for a long time, he was used to putting up with uncomfortable conditions, but when it was almost eleven thirty, he decided that his body needed a break. He wasn't particularly hungry, and he needed to be frugal with his money, so he just found a rest stop on the side of the road, parked up his bike, and went for a walk.

He stretched out his legs, and his arms, and then settled down somewhere near a river and drank from the bottle of water that he had kept in his duffle bag. He was a bit tired, but he didn't want to properly stop until that night when he was actually stopping to sleep. He just needed some time to let his body get used to actual blood flow again.

There was something calming and almost hypnotic about the way the river sounded as it rushed past him and the light whistle of the wind in the trees and the fact that he could only occasionally hear a car go past.

He wasn't really used to the quiet.

He was a born and bred New Yorker.

Sometimes there were times when Jace had got on his motorcycle and driven in a straight line when things had gotten too much. He dreamed about just continuing to drive until he ran out of gas and couldn't keep going. But the responsibility and obligation that he felt toward his mother had always won out, and he turned the bike around and headed back home. He had been driving for almost twelve hours, and that was the furthest he had ever been from New York.

Jace couldn't stop his mind from wandering back over the past few weeks. He was twenty-three years old, but he felt as though he had been reduced to a worrying mess of a six year old who had lost his mother in a crowded supermarket. He was used to Celine Herondale not coming home for a night or two, but it had now been a week since he had seen her. He had tried calling her phone number, going around to the apartment of the drop kick asshole that she had been seeing a few months ago, but the phone kept going to voice mail and the ex-lover hadn't seen her. Finally, on the eighth day after she had disappeared, she had stumbled in the door of their tiny apartment, reeking of alcohol and eyes bloodshot, with a gaudy ring on her finger.

She had gotten drunk and gotten married.

Jace had lost his shit.

He had been working overtime—every single day—for the past three and a half weeks, without a day off, just trying to make ends week, and she had gone and spent the money he put aside for their rent and food and utilities on a stupid diamond ring. Apparently the charmer that she had married couldn't quite 'afford the ring he thought she deserved' and so she had pitched in.

The cherry on top was when Celine had stated was that she was too old to still be living with her son, and she wanted a fresh start.

She wanted a fresh start.

As though she was the one who's life hadn't been properly lived.

Celine had been complaining for as long as Jace could remember that getting pregnant with him had ruined her life. She had been eighteen when she had met Stephen Herondale. He was a few years older than her, and he was suave and smooth talking, and he charmed his way into her pants within a few minutes. When she got knocked up, she gave up working and stayed at home with him. She had never been good at school, so University and studying had never been in the cards for her, so once Jace had grown up, she didn't have anything to fall back on. Stephen had stayed around for some time, surprisingly, maybe he actually had intentions to be a good father.

He failed miserably.

Jace didn't remember too much about his father, but he remembers shouting and screaming, and being pushed into walls and over chairs and down a flight of stairs. He remembers being scared and wanting to feel safe, wanting someone to put their arms around him and tell him that it was going to be okay.

He learnt pretty damn fast that he couldn't rely on someone to do that for him.

There had only been three people who had ever made him feel as though he was safe and loved, and neither of them were his parents.

One of them probably hadn't even realized how much they had even meant to Jace.

Jace took in a deep breath as he scrubbed a hand over his face and through his shaggy, blonde hair which was matted from where it had been shoved under his helmet for almost twelve hours, a bit greasy with sweat. It was going to feel good to have a shower when he found some cheap hotel to crash in that night. He made his way back to his bike, his ass already aching a little just at the idea of getting back on, but he swung his leg over, and pulled his helmet on, doing up the strap and then revving the engine. It vibrated between his thighs, an arousing power, and he slapped on a pair of sunglasses and took off, wheels spinning up gravel and creating a rift in his wake.

It was three days later that Jace made it to Los Angeles.

He could have made it in less time, but for once in his life, he didn't have to be somewhere, or have to be doing something, and he was taking advantage of that the best he could.

The city was busy but it didn't feel quite like New York. There was something in the air that just felt completely different. The sun shone brighter, and Jace was starting to feel as though he was going to need to take off his leather jacket that had been keeping him protected from the whipping of the wind on his journey over. As he got closer to the beach, there was a salty tang in the air and he took in deep breaths through his nose.

It was the middle of a Wednesday afternoon, but their were still quite a few people on the beach. There were mums their with toddlers, and a couple of dogs running around with their owners, and girls in bikini's and boys throwing around a football.

Jace parked his motorbike up by the long line of cars and switched it off, pocketing the keys as he pulled off his helmet and then shrugged out of his leather jacket. He instantly felt lighter, only wearing his jeans and a light, v-neck tee-shirt. He pulled it away from his slightly sweaty skin, shaking it out, before walking toward the beach. He really wanted to pull off his shoes and socks and let his toes sink into the sand, but then he was gonna have to shove his feet back into those shoes and socks before he could ride his bike again, and that would just be uncomfortable, so he refrained.

Instead he found an empty spot, far enough away from the a gaggle of mothers with their screaming children that he could still hear the kids laughs every now an then but not pitchy enough that it scratched at his eardrums.

Jace was tired. Although he had stopped and stayed at hotels each of the nights he had been driving, they had all been cheap hotels with thin mattresses and flat pillows and hardly enough blankets to keep warm. He was pretty adaptable when it came to less than desirable sleeping positions, but given his body had already been aching ridiculously from being on the bike all day, he hadn't been able to get comfortable, and he had mainly tossed and turned. He was definitely looking forward to getting a good nights sleep.

He pulled his phone and sent off a text.

I'll be there soon. If I don't get lost following my GPS ;)

Jace shoved his phone into his back pocket and looked back out over the ocean. The tide was coming in, and there were a couple of surfers who were paddling out towards the waves. He had a feeling that he was going to be spending a lot of time down here at the beach—he was going to have a lot more free time on his hands now that he didn't need to support his mother as well as himself.

He lost track of time, pulling cigarettes out of his pocket and lighting up, ignoring the dirty looks that came from a couple of the mothers as he took a drag, blowing the hazy smoke into the clean around him. So maybe he was polluting the fresh air, but that was why he hadn't sat directly next to anyone. He finished the cigarette and stubbed it out in the sand. He was about to leave it there, but the longer he stared at the little discrepancy in the pretty, smooth sand, the worse he felt, so he picked the butt up and carried it back toward the parking lot with him, and flicked it toward the bin. He decided to forego his leather jacket, shoving it into his duffle bag, and then felt his phone vibrate just as he was about to pick up his helmet.

I'm not home at the moment, but let yourself in with the spare key. It's under the doormat at the back door.

Jace couldn't help but be a little disappointed, but it was the middle of the Wednesday afternoon, and he knew that his cousin had to work. It had been almost a year since he had seen Alec Lightwood though, so he had been hoping that he would be there when Jace arrived.

He typed in the address to Alec and his partners home and saw that it was only about a fifteen minute drive away. That was nice. That meant that as long as he was staying with Alec, he could take jogs in the morning and end up right along the beach. He wasn't sure how long he was going to be staying with them, he hadn't really thought that far ahead. The whole uplifting his life from NY to LA had been a split second decision and he really hadn't thought the whole thing through. Hell, he didn't even know how big Alec's place was, and there was every chance he was only going to be able to stay there for a short amount of time. And at the end of the day, that was what he was going to want. He wanted his own place, his own life, and to live it the way that he wanted to.

It's not as though Alec would ever going to ask him to leave, even if the place was crowded.

Alec and his sister, Isabelle Lightwood, had always been constants in Jace's life, even though they were hundreds and hundreds of miles away. Sometimes they would go weeks without talking, but then whenever they got in front of the webcam, or Facetime, or on the phone the time would fade away, and the stresses and shit in Jace's life just disappeared.

That was why after Celine had walked out on him, and he had gone out and fucked some nameless girl in a dirty bathroom bar to get rid of his frustrations, his mind had instantly gone to his cousins.

That was where he wanted to be.

That was where he would feel safe, and cared for, and loved.

All it had taken was a phone call, he had barely got the words out before Alec was insisting that he get his ass there as soon as he could. Isabelle had been in the background, and he could hear her cheering, saying that they would finally all be living in the same place, and that he could finally get to know his nephew properly, Max Lightwood-Lewis.

Something else he would never had had the time to do if he was in New York.

He hadn't even met his nephew yet, who was now almost a year old. Had only seen photos of him when they were sent to his phone. He was sure that he would have been able to see a whole lot more if he had a Facebook, like Alec and Izzy kept insisting he get, but he just couldn't bring himself to. He didn't think he would be able to handle seeing photos of their happy, picture-perfect lives while he was stuck, unable to go forward and struggling not to backward.

Besides, Jace had no doubt that that third person would also feature on their Facebook pages; that third person that made him feel as though there was something who cared what happened to him.

It was stupid, and he knew he was clinging to an idea rather to an actual person, because they had only met three times, but every single time they were together it had felt as though there was this connection. Jace knew that they didn't owe him anything, and to be completely honest, he would happy if they just offered him their friendship now that he was here.

Jace didn't get lost, and he managed to find Alec's place well enough. It was a house, rather than an apartment, and Jace couldn't stop his smile. There was a lawn out the front which was clipped to a short, tidy length, and there was a tree in the corner, all leafy and green. Jace had to bite his lip as he took it all in as he got off his motorbike, parking it up against the house, and he pulled off his helmet. The house was a cream colour with a dark coloured roof and the windows were all cleaned, the blinds inside open enough to let the sun in, but closed enough for privacy. There was a garage at the end of the drive, the door closed. He walked slowly around the side of the house, finding the backdoor and grinning when he saw a grey doormat laid there.

Wipe your fucking feet, please, it read in dark, swirly writing.

He couldn't stop his snort of laughter.

He bent down and lifted it up, finding the key and then slid it into the lock. There was a pleasant citrus smell in the house, mixed together with the scent of mens cologne, something expensive, and probably belonging to Alec's partner.

There was movement in the hall to his left and Jace frowned, turning around sharply.

No one was meant to be here, Alec would have told him.

Then his eyes widened as he saw the person—his third person—step out into view with a wide grin on their face, eyes sparkling.

"Sebastian," Jace murmured.

Right! So...How was it?

I've got lots of recommendations I want to make coz I've been away for so long, but I'll just throw a couple out there. Movies—Moana! It was amazing. So was Rogue One, which I didn't expect to like because I'm not a big fan of Felicity Jones, but it was incredible, and Diego Luna is my new love. And a couple of songs I'm in love with at the moment are Falling For You by Lyon Hart and Dangerously by Charlie Puth.

Alright, so, tell me...Did you guys all have an amazing Christmas/New Years? Me and my hubby always travel for Christmas to see extended family, but it was just a quiet one at home with a couple of his family members, so that was nice. And for New Years we rented out a house by the beach with a couple of our close friends, so that was amazing.

Tell me what you guys got up to, and leave a review.

And if you guys want a preview of the next chapter, just ask, and I'll throw one out there ;) Don't forget to check out the new multi-chapter stories, which you guys all voted on, as well as a bunch of new oneshots I've written. I've gone and put some of them up :)