Disclaimer: Anything from The Mortal Instruments belongs to Cassandra Clare

"I found this really cool place, it's called Taki's or something," Ivan was saying as he and Clary walked through the dark streets of New York. It was already starting to get colder as autumn was coming in and Clary hadn't prepared for that, having decided to wear only a tank top. She shivered. "The outside looks like a dump, but the food is actually pretty good."

Ivan looked down at her with his big smile and Clary could only manage a forced one back. Ever since she had left Jace's house the week before, she couldn't help but wonder what could've happened if she had let Jace kiss her. She'd fantasized about it so many times before, in her dreams, in class, but when she finally had the opportunity she shot him down. But the thing that surprised her the most was the immense feeling of regret that tormented her.

All week long, Jace ignored her and flirted with every girl that happened to cross his path. Well, if they were pretty, which only made Clary feel even worse about herself. You don't fit in with the types of girls I date. His words ran through her mind every day as she saw him with another tall, skinny, beautiful girl. Clary was pretty in the sense that people didn't find her hard to look at, but she would never aspire to call herself beautiful. She was short, shaped like a board, and would be very surprised if she wasn't carded the next time she tried to watch a PG-13 movie. Yeah, she definitely wasn't the type of girl Jace would date.

The thing she couldn't seem to fathom was why she wanted Jace so much. Why, when he was so hot and cold with her? Why, when it seemed they couldn't get along for more than a week? Why, when Jace seemed unable to even have a steady girlfriend? But despite the questions, Clary still felt this undeniable pull towards him, and she definitely felt that it had more to do than just him being exceptionally attractive. And this, still, even though she had a boyfriend - a boyfriend who was really hot and cared a lot about her.

"Clary?"

Clary had been so engrossed in her thoughts she hadn't even noticed that they had stopped walking and were now in front of some run down place with very poor lighting. She glanced up at Ivan who was staring at her in a way she couldn't decipher.

"Yeah?"

"This is the place I was talking about," Ivan said, bringing up a hand to swipe his hair out of his face. He didn't sound so excited anymore. "I just thought that we could have our first official date here."

Guilt flooded Clary's senses. She smiled broadly and pulled Ivan along until they were standing in front of the door. "Well, this definitely beats Chinese fast food," she said, recalling their actual first date.

Ivan instantly became more cheerful and opened the door with a grand gesture and ushered Clary in as she giggled.

It was a normal mediterranean restaurant like any other Clary had ever been to, although it was a little more worn for wear than was typical, but somehow that gave it a more fantastical ambiance that Clary could feel in her soul. She glanced around at the dim lights, overhanging plants, and cozy nooks throughout.

Ivan grasped her hand tightly, and suddenly realized that he was trying to impress her. She turned to him, smiled, and said, "You've really stepped up your game. So are we just going to stand here or what?"

Ivan shot her a joyous grin and pulled her along until they reached one of the booths near the corner. It was a little dark, with a small lamp overhead to give it a soft spotlight, and the seats were comfortable and large. So far, so good, Clary thought, but then stopped when she realized she was judging the date. She shouldn't do that. She genuinely liked Ivan and she'd hung out with him so much that no matter where they were, it'd be good enough for her. She enjoyed being with him and she actually got along with him, as opposed to someone who wouldn't leave her thoughts. Someone she shouldn't be thinking about when she was on a date with someone else.

The truth was there in the corner of her mind, but she refused to acknowledge it. It's not right to do that to Ivan, she thought.

The menus were already on the table so they picked them up and looked through the list. Clary glanced at the weird names of the dishes and grimaced. She put down her menu and then lowered Ivan's. When she met his eyes, he had a knowing look in them. "Where did you bring me? I mean, pig's blood?" she asked him, with wide, slightly concerned, eyes. "Is this one of those weird places where people think they're vampires and drink actual blood?"

"What?!" Ivan laughed, his eyes crinkling in the corners. "You've been reading too much, but no, it's not. Pig's blood just means that it's a platter of, like, sausages, ham, bacon and stuff like that."

"Oh," Clary said simply. She picked her menu back up. "They should consider renaming their foods."

"But then this place wouldn't be so unique," Ivan said behind his menu. He dropped it in front of him and pulled Clary's down too. She gazed at him questioningly. His face softened and grinned. "You have no idea how happy I am right now."

Clary felt her cheeks heat up and then Ivan grabbed her hand and kissed it.

A server came and took their orders for their drinks and then left while they continued to peruse the menu and make idle chit chat.

During a lull in the conversation, Clary felt Ivan's eyes on hers and she glanced up to see him looking down at her with a grimace. "What's wrong?" she asked him.

Ivan took a deep breath and continued to grimace. He finally said, "Clary, it's been two weeks. Can we at least tell some of our friends?"

The guilt tore at Clary's conscience. Ivan liked any displays of affections, public or privately, and she knew he hated that he had to pretend they were just friends when they were in school. Sometimes he would try to hold her hand when walking to classes and she'd notice the hurt in his eyes right when she'd pull away. It killed her to see that she was, in a way, making him suffer, but she wasn't sure if she was ready to tell anyone. The reason for this made her feel guiltier, but she couldn't get rid of it.

"Don't you like this privacy right now?" she asked him, a tinge of desperation laced in her voice. "I mean, all the other girls will hate me for taking you, Isabelle and Magnus will constantly be annoying us, and…" she trailed off as another reason came to mind. The one she didn't want to acknowledge. How will Jace react? The thought frustrated her.

Ivan grabbed both her hands in his. "But I want the other girls to know that I'm yours. I want Magnus and Isabelle to annoy us about being a couple. I want everyone to know that you're with me." His tan hands reached up and cupped her cheeks gently. He grinned softly and said, "I want to be able to do this in front of everyone," and he leaned across the table and kissed her slowly.

Clary liked kissing Ivan. He was a good kisser and he was always able to make her feel a spark throughout her body. His hands on her face were familiar and comforting. His lips were soft and enticing. He made her feel good. He made her feel loved, even, but now it felt like she was constantly reaching for something else and he couldn't give it to her.

When they broke apart, his grin grew into his blinding smile. "I miss holding your hand, putting my arm around you, hugging you, filling my locker with cheesy couple photos, sneaking into the corner of the library so we could make out, ditching class to meet in one of the storage rooms, holding your textbooks –"

"You can still do that one," Clary interrupted with a laugh, feeling nostalgic over what he had just told her.

He brushed his fingers over her hand. "I can, but it means something different when people know you're my girlfriend. I miss showing how much I care about you," he said wistfully.

Jace doesn't matter! She thought to herself. He really didn't, and she was stupid for even letting him come between her relationship with Ivan. And it was all in her mind!

"I miss that too," Clary said eventually, a small smile playing at her lips. When it came down to it, there was really only one choice. One guy was her boyfriend; the other was an attractive guy who sometimes paid attention to her. It was almost pathetic how much time she spent brooding over him. "Fine, you've convinced me. We'll tell everyone as soon as we see them, yeah?" She was glad to have until Monday.

Ivan was about to say something back when a waitress came by with their drinks. It was Kaelie, Clary noticed.

Kaelie pretended she didn't know Clary and smiled broadly at Ivan. "Are you ready to order or do you need more time?"

"Clary!"

Clary looked around and saw Isabelle coming toward them. And she wasn't alone. Alec sulked behind her and Jace brought up the end, walking confidently towards her table. She hated how her heart skipped a beat at the sight of him. Stupid heart and your stupid propensity for douchebags!

Isabelle sat down on Clary's side of the booth and scooted over to make room for Alec.

"What are you guys doing here?" Clary asked, surprised.

Jace, who had no choice but to sit next to Ivan, said, "Date crashing, apparently."

He glanced up at Kaelie and greeted her. "Hey Kaelie," he said nonchalantly, which meant they came here often, or at the very least he did.

Isabelle picked up Clary's menu. "No kidding? You guys are really here on a date?"

Clary was still a bit shocked at having her date interrupted so suddenly, so Ivan answered. "Yeah. Our first official date, actually, but we've been together for two weeks now. Since that night of the football game."

Clary felt Jace's sudden glare like a slap to the face, but the look was gone by the time she made eye contact with him. Ha! Let him think she was playing with him and not the other way around. The more she thought about it, the more she came to the conclusion that he was probably mad because he couldn't toy with her anymore.

Isabelle shot Clary a sly look and grinned coyly. "Oh, I see. Shame on you for keeping a secret, but it's about damn time! I can't wait to go on double dates with you two. Oh, do you guys mind us sitting here or are we ruining the mood?"

"If I told you guys to leave, would you?" Clary replied.

"No," Jace said, lifting a shoulder absently and scanning the menu. "We'll just pretend you aren't staring into one another's starry eyes like love-struck puppies while we enjoy our fine meals. Kaelie!" Jace yelled, waving the menu. "The usual, please."

Kaelie practically came running back and took Jace's menu with a slow brush of their hands and grinned a grin that had Clary wanting to kick her in the shin.

"If it's any consolation, I actually really don't want to be here," Alec stated, looking like all the misery in the world was poured into him.

"Ugh, I wish I had more girl friends. These two are too much to handle sometimes," Isabelle groaned. Her bracelets jangled as she swept her hair out of her face. "Kaelie, we'll take that order to go, please."

She turned back to Clary. "We're really just stopping by because Jace got hungry, but we've got to be home soon. So no worries, we'll leave you to your romantic date with this yummy boy soon."

Clary was sure her face was turning red. Ivan held his hand out for Clary to hold and said, "Thanks, Isabelle. You're all cool and all, but we really want to be alone for this, right, Clary?"

Jace fake gagged and got out of the booth. Clary stuck her tongue out at him and he smirked back at her before walking away, towards Kaelie, Clary presumed.

"Izzy, I love you, but this was a great date that has now come down to a solid place in the lower rankings of bad dates."

Shortly after, they got their meals and so did Jace. They said their goodbyes, but Jace never came back to the table.

Clary was no longer feeling the mood from earlier in the date and Ivan could tell.

"Let's scrap this one, and we'll have a real perfect first date next time, yeah?"

Clary stifled a laugh and poked him in the arm. "At this rate, let's just keep having perfect first dates until one actually sticks."

Ivan laughed and tucked Clary under his arm as they left.

AN: It's been 84 years, they said. Not really, only 5, but I get the gist. With that said, it's been so long that I had forgotten the process for uploading new chapters. It's still very perplexing.

So, hi everyone! I understand that at this point many of you reading this chapter are not the original people who read this story back when I first published it 6 years ago, but nonetheless I want to say that I bought a new laptop and I felt like writing, stumbled upon this chapter in my google drive, and realized I never posted it. I also realized that 18 year old me needed some help with developing stronger characters and story lines - that's something I'll get to eventually.

Time has changed...I graduated college, volunteered for a year around the county, and then got a job with Uncle Sam, for whom I travel around the country living in hotel rooms and exploring new places. It's been fun, but unfortunately FF took a backseat. I'll be honest with you and say that I don't know how far this story will go. Like I said before, I didn't plan a story line and I mostly made stuff up as I went and my mentality now is not anything like it was 6 years ago so I'm not sure if I'd even be able to build a good story with the beginning of this as the basis (imo Clary needs to stop pining). But for all those who waited, I'm sorry - all I can give you is this chapter that I wrote when I was 19 and forgot about, but hopefully it's a little satisfying (I sure do miss Jace, though).