Chapter Text
It's Tuesday again and Jace is tired. So, so tired.
Patrol went to shit. It was an early patrol which usually aren't all that bad. He and Alec, because Alec still goes on patrol like the workaholic he actually is, were babysitting two new transfers from Idris who were stationed at their first ever institute and were itching to serve the purpose Raziel had instilled into their blood. Or something like that. Jace was never that green.
They had been fine in training and evals; Jace did them himself. But the second Alec Lightwood, walking, breathing 'fuck you' to the Clave drew back his bow and shot three Shax demons in rapid succession, Eversong lost his ability to function and was overcome by the need to stare at Jace's parabatai's bulging biceps. Which meant Jace had to finish off the demons on the ground with Ashburn only and now he has ichor in his hair.
Jace gets it, okay. Alec has an Institute and a hot husband who is his soulmate and also happens to be the warlock who saved all of Idris. Alec shoots a five-arrow bow. And he's tall, which is apparently important. He has Shadowhunters from all parts of the world requesting transfers to work at his Institute looking for acceptance of being different, to openly have a non-traditional relationship, and to support the things he stands for. All great things, but none of them mean you get a pass on watching your team's back in favor of hero-worship.
Fuck Tuesdays.
Eversong is cleaning everyone's weapons as an apology, so Jace doesn't have to worry about that at least. He strips as he enters his room, dropping all the soiled clothes in the 'Ah fuck, ichor' laundry basket and heads for the shower so he can scrub until he feels like a person and is a blonde again.
He hops out of the shower, drying off with a towel and slinging it around his waist, because he is important now, thank you Alec, and he never knows when someone might be looking for him to hand him something. He opens the door and sees a goose laying in the center of his bed, curled up with its head tucked under a tan wing.
That was not there when he went into the bathroom. He slams the door shut.
"No. Fuck no," Jace whispers angrily to himself. "That is not a Soulmate Goose sitting on my fucking bed. I found my One and the Angels said I can't have her. So that can not be a Soulmate Goose and is just a normal, regular, asshole goose that broke into the New York Institute and decided to take a nap in my bed." He runs a hand through his still-damp hair. "Yeah, that's exactly what happened."
Jace puts his hand on the door handle and takes in a steadying breath. He braces himself and cracks the door back open, just enough to see the Canadian Goose dozing on his bed.
The goose slowly lifts his head and fixates on Jace through the crack in the door, its eyes blazing a demonic orange and full of hate.
Fuck.
Jace slams the door shut, turning the lock and bracing his back against it just in case. The goose screams in rage, throwing itself bodily against the door, scratching and pecking doing anything it can to force the door open. Jace can feel the anger in its hits through the wood at his back.
"No, you fucking oversized hell-chicken. You ARE NOT coming after me when all I've got is a towel. Fuck that!" Jace yells through the door. He is decidedly not interested in the beast getting anywhere near his unprotected dick and with his luck, that would be stop number one.
"Go away!" he yells as the bird continues to assault his bathroom door. It has to go away, it serves no purpose. He can't have another soulmate. He's a Shadowhunter, his One is Clary and she has no memory of any of them. Why the fuck is the goose here?
"Jace!" He can hear Alec calling out over the racket the goose-shaped ball of fury is making. "Are you okay? I can feel you panicking."
There is a lull where all he can hear is the goose doing its best attempt at a feathery wrecking ball. Alec must have finally made it to the doorway because he shouts, "Why is there a fucking goose in your room?"
"It's my Soulmate Goose and it's an ASSHOLE," Jace shouts back through the door.
"What did you do to it?" Alec sounds very judgmental.
"Nothing!"
"Mine didn't act like this. So what the hell did you do?" Alec shouts, getting louder as he goes along.
"NOTHING! It arrived here already insane!" Jace huffs out a breath. "Angels above Alec, you're supposed to be on my side," he mutters to himself.
"Why Jace… why are you like this?" Jace can almost see Alec rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Mr. Goose?" Alec asks politely and the assault on the door stops immediately. "Good, great. Okay. Hi, Mr. Goose. My name is Alec Lightwood-Bane and that's my parabatai you've got trapped in the bathroom."
Alec must be crazy for trying to reason with a manic waterfowl set on ripping Jace apart with its tounge-teeth, but have at it dude.
"So, he can't actually get to his soulmate if you've got him stuck in there. So why don't you come over here by me and we will stay by this door, it's the only way in or out of this room, and make sure he gets dressed so you can take him to his soulmate. I'm sure she won't like it very much if he shows up naked."
Jace hears the pat-pat-pat of webbed feet on his floor and then nothing.
"You can come out now," Alec sing-songs. Jace is going to shove his face extra-hard into the mat the next time they spar if he opens this door and a snake-bird bites him.
Jace opens the door and sees Alec leaning casually against the doorframe, blocking the entire door with his big, stupid body and grinning like an idiot. He's texting someone; Jace is willing to bet it's his husband or their sister or both. The Canadian-Goose-from-Hell is sitting quietly at his feet, glaring at Jace with his orange eye, daring him to try and get away.
"Thanks for finally getting me out of there Alec," Jace says, hating Alec a bit because he can just talk down a raging Soulmate Goose. Jace starts going through his wardrobe for clean clothes. "But you don't have to look so thrilled about the situation."
"Oh, I don't know. It's not everyday my parabatai manifests his Soulmate Goose." Alec is entirely too pleased with everything that's happening, still texting on his phone.
Jace pulls up his pants and fixes Alec with an unimpressed stare. "How's Magnus?"
"Meeting us at the front door as soon as you're ready to go." Jace wants to wrestle the smug look off his face.
"For a portal?" Because that would be great, not having to wander around aimlessly with only the dubious input from an angry bird as a guide all night sounds like a good idea. Jace grabs his stele and contemplates how many weapons he needs to take. "Does he know where we're going?"
"Not a clue," Alec says, sounding happy to be unhelpful. "It's not like we were going to let you go all on your own. You were there for us after all."
"Thank you for turning my pain into a spectator sport," Jace replies sarcastically, shrugging into his coat.
"Oh no problem! Izzy and Simon just got here, so are you ready to head out?" Alec asks like they're headed out for dinner.
Alec might actually be worse than the goose at this point for how much joy he is getting out of the situation. Jace glares at him and makes his way to the door. Alec smirks back.
The goose, as if somehow sensing Jace's thoughts, pecks the back of Jace's knee viciously.
"Ow, you fucker," he growls at the goose, knee buckling.
It hisses back and starts menacing Jace down the hall and toward the doors of the Institute, with Alec sauntering behind them. Ops and the hallways are surprisingly full of people, all stopping to watch Jace's walk of goose-driven shame.
It fucking bites his ass as they go past one of the cameras in Ops, so now that's on the security footage. He bets it will be a gif within the hour.
He's going to murder Alec.
Jace stops for a second at the Institute doors, seeing Magnus, Izzy and Simon standing at the bottom of the stairs, chattering like they're all meeting up for date-night. Also, all of them are conveniently dressed for a nice, relaxing walk through the New York night. They really are going to come along. Damnit.
The goose slams into Jace and nearly sends him tumbling down the stairs.
"I am going to fucking chop your head off and let Izzy serve you for Christmas dinner!" Jace threatens. The goose looks back at him with the fury of hell and no fear.
"Hey! Leave me out of this," Izzy chides. "I'm just here for moral support."
"Yeah!" Simon agrees. "So you feel loved and stuff while looking for your soulmate. I remember how scary it is getting chased by one of those things."
"I don't know what is wrong with all of you," Magnus says condescendingly. "Our goose was a complete angel. Hello, love," he greets Alec, stretching up for a kiss hello.
Magnus smiles at Alec as they pull away from their kiss and gets lost a bit, staring into his husband's eyes. Izzy coughs and snaps Magnus out of it.
"Right!" Magnus claps his hands together. "Gentlemen, Isabelle, physical manifestation of the wonders of the universe, shall we go?" He makes a sweeping gesture to the city of New York behind him that even the asshole bird seems to appreciate. Alec threads their fingers together and Izzy takes Simon's arm. Everyone looks expectantly at Jace. He needs new friends.
Jace says nothing; he just picks a direction and stalks off. The goose runs in front of him and pecks his shin painfully, which is going to leave a bruise. He turns around and walks the other direction, the goose seemingly content to follow for now. The other couples walk behind the goose like this is a moonlit stroll in Central Park.
And thus begins the world's worst game of Hot and Cold ever played.
Jace walks ahead of the goose trying to figure out where in the hell this devil-in-feathers wants him to go while the goose gives input in the form of ill-tempered hisses and honks with a liberal helping of pecks, bites and body checks to make sure Jace gets the directions right. He is going to need one iratze per leg at this rate.
His asshole family is following along and documenting everything for posterity. He's just glad that the plethora of mundanes they pass can't see his walk of shame.
"One day your children are going to ask how you met their mother and Auntie Isabelle will have all the answers," Izzy laughs at him, holding her phone up to record more footage.
It feels like they've been walking forever; Alec and Magnus seem to have gotten bored. He thinks they are discussing the merits of making another one of the stray cats an indoor cat like the old-married couple they actually are, but he can't actually tell because the goose honks loud enough to rival an entire brass band next to his ear and hits him hard enough in the shoulder that he staggers through a propped open doorway.
Jace gets far enough in to look around. Once upon a time, this would have been a warehouse space, but it's been converted into a mundane art gallery. There's some kind of artist exhibition going on, the paintings lining the room all seem to be done by the same artist.
"Hey Magnus," Jace can hear Alec from behind him, "look at this, it feels like our wedding."
Jace turns to look at the piece. It's abstract, made from overlapping layers of paint but when Jace looks at it *does* feel like Alec's wedding. The second one, the happy one. The colors and shapes look like the flowers trailing from the Institute chapel ceiling and down over the ancient stained glass. Anyone who had been there would recognize it.
"We're buying it," Magnus says immediately. "I don't care how much it costs, it's ours."
Jace feels his chest begin to tighten. Because if that is Magnus and Alec's wedding…
"Look at this one," Izzy waves at a different painting, "it's like the City of Bones."
"Let's not buy that one," Simon comments.
Jace doesn't need to look at that one to know it will feel familiar as well. He suspects all of them will remind them of something in some way. He can see the sands of Edom out of the corner of his eye.
The thrice-damned goose pecks at his heels and he starts moving forward again, toward the flash of red he can make out at the far end of the gallery. A few people who were talking to the artist move on and Jace can actually see her.
Clarissa Fairchild is even more beautiful than the first time he saw her, he has to lean against a convenient column for support, not that he would ever admit he was doing that. He's just posing sexily against it until he works up the nerve to strike-through his Unseen rune.
The evil bastard goose gives an attention seeking honk from Jace's feet, drawing Clary's attention. When Jace looks up, Clary is close, so close. He has to take a step back so he doesn't do something completely stupid, like kiss her.
"Hey, sorry. I didn't mean to spook you." Jace has missed her voice.
"You can see me?" She shouldn't still have the Sight; there's no way she should be able to.
She shakes her head in disbelief. "Of course I can see you."
Jace wants to run away. He might have tried it if he didn't have his private bits in goose-strike range. Or the fact he can tell Alec is close enough to grab him by the collar if he tries. Izzy probably has her whip on her if Alec misses.
"Don't I know you? From somewhere?"
"No, I don't think so." Actually yes, he thinks, but you really should not be able to know that.
"No, I do! I definitely do. I…" her eyes are darting across his face, taking in every feature. "You're Jace, right?"
"Yeah," his voice soft, like one noise could break the spell.
"Yeah?" Clary's smile is amazing, Jace has missed it too.
He smiles back. "Yeah, uh, I'm Jace."
"I'm… I'm Clary. I'm," she breaks off into a nervous little laugh. "I'm your One."
"Yeah, my soulmate. Got the goose and everything." Jace taps the hell-bird with his boot and it lets out an indignant squawk.
Clary startles, looking somewhere other than at Jace and seeing the goose for the first time. She knew they were soulmates without prompting, that's got to be some kind of sign.
"Oh! Hello," she says to the goose, bending down, intending to pet it. Instead, it throws itself into her arms, cuddly and sweet, like it hasn't been harassing Jace with obnoxious tenacity for what feels like hours. "Oh, okay, apparently it likes to be held."
Clary stands up with it, holding it much too close to their faces for common sense to be involved. The goose is actively glaring at Jace like he wants to rip out his intestines and play the bird-version of jump-rope with them, but at least his eyes are a nice, sedate brown. Jace glares back.
"I don't think it likes me very much." Jace will deal with it as long as it doesn't harm Clary.
"Aren't they supposed to help?"
"Mine's defective," Jace snarls at the bird.
"It trapped him in the bathroom and I had to come break him out." Alec looks like the words just came out; like he didn't mean to interrupt the moment but honestly could not have stopped himself from giving Clary this information if he had to.
Jace glares at Alec, who just holds his hands up. Jace makes a face that clearly tells Alec to fuck off and let him do this. Alec shrugs and walks over to where his husband is finishing negotiating the purchase of Clary's piece.
Jace can see Izzy and Simon hovering very nearby, listening in and being completely unsubtle. They're both darting glances at Clary, like they're also afraid she will disappear.
"Brother?" Clary asks. It seems she can see Alec as well, so it's not just soulmate magic. Her Sight is back.
"Parabatai," he corrects automatically, belatedly realizing that word would be complete nonsense to her now.
"Brother," Clary confirms, as if his answer had been yes.
"Close enough," Jace does his best not to roll his eyes, "I didn't mean to show up with an entourage."
"It's fine," Clary adjusts the goose to get a better grip, "the more the merrier, right?"
She's looking past him. Jace turns to look and finds that everyone he came with is standing in a cluster right behind him. They're talking to themselves and not eavesdropping for once, or at least they're getting better at covering what they're doing.
"Hey," Clary grabs Jace's attention. "So, um, today is just very strange but I need to be here for like another hour." Clary sounds hesitant, like she thinks Jace might disappear.
"Yeah, of course." His words run together in the rush to reassure her.
"But after, maybe we can go home and talk?"
"Home?" Jace is confused. "Like your apartment?"
Clary frowns. "No… I don't think that's what I mean." She juggles the goose a little so she can wave her arm a few times, the gesture encompassing the five of them. "Home. I'm sorry. Does that make sense?"
"Yeah, it absolutely makes sense," Izzy agrees, looking certain. Clary looks relieved that someone could understand what she meant.
Jace isn't sure if she means home as in the Institute. Or maybe it's the shadow world in general. It could just mean with the people that love her. Whatever it means, it means that Jace is included therefore it's fine.
"How about the Loft?" Magnus offers. Apparently he also understands hand-wavey gestures.
"The Loft is probably better," Alec confirms.
"Is that okay?" Jace asks.
"I think so..." Clary turns her head to the side, as if a different angle would make the information click into place. "Seems… good?"
"The Loft it is. We should go get it ready," Magnus concludes. He smiles warmly at Clary, who smiles back, and walks toward the door, everyone but Jace and Clary following. Izzy has to give Simon a few tugs to get him moving, but he does go.
"Come stand with me?" She holds out her free hand for him to take, so he does. She smiles up at him. "So we don't upset our goose."
"Okay, but I won't hold that thing," nodding to the goose as he speaks. Jace will never like that goose, even if it did force him to walk through New York and the end result is he has Clary back.
"Deal."