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Jace never would’ve imagined that the worst part of his time in the literal hellscape of Edom would be the incessant questioning of the Seelie Knight he’s bonded to.
“What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done?” Meliorn asks. “- Besides answering my questions here.” Jace curses Meliorn’s ability to see every potential loophole before Jace can exploit it. It’s hardly fair, given Meliorn is already intricately familiar with how to best manipulate the truth and exactly how to phrase the perfect query.
“My first day at the Academy one of the cadets said I couldn’t catch a throwing knife blindfolded and of course I said I could.” Jace begins to answer. Each time he tries to open his mouth the truth comes tumbling out before he can even consider whatever lie he’d normally spout off to make himself look good. “He called my bluff and dared me to try, so I did. I nearly lost two fingers - half the new students could barely hold a stele, let alone activate a decent iratze. If it wasn’t for a visiting warlock who used healing magic in addition to my iratze it would’ve been a lot worse than a small scar.”
Meliorn is laughing at the mental image before Jace gets to finish the full story which ends with Jace holding up his hand to show off the faintest of white marks across his middle and index fingers as proof.
“I was trying to impress a girl in our class!” Jace defends, as if that makes it somehow better and not worse, before shutting his mouth.
“I’m sorry for your fragile ego,” Meliorn says, clearly not sorry at all.
“Hmmm…” Meliorn’s eyes flicker up and down Jace’s body. “Do you dye your hair?” The Seelie asks finally, gaze settling on Jace’s head and his portal-travel-mussed hair.
Jace doesn’t speak right away this time. He can do this. He’s lied his way out of a number of scenarios with the Lightwoods, and Hodge, and even occasionally his father when he was younger. He can’t lie… but not all lies have to be outright lies , do they? Just not entire truths.
“I’m a natural blonde,” he says slowly, proud of the answer. There’s too much of a pause, enough that Meliorn knows he’s leaving something out, but instead of being annoyed by it Meliorn smirks.
“You learn fast,” Meliorn says, nodding his approval. “I’m impressed.” Jace thinks he might let it go but instead looks back over to see Meliorn shoot him a wink. “But just between us, the highlights…?”
Jace sighs. “Dyed,” he admits in defeat. “I can’t believe Clary’s with Simon, and Alec gets magic, and I’m stuck with you and this built-in truth serum interrogation.” Jace mutters under his breath, but loud enough that Meliorn hears anyway. He immediately wishes he hadn’t said anything at all.
“Are you jealous?”
“Yes,” Jace says immediately. It’s a vague enough answer, but of course Meliorn reads the emotion behind it.
“Of Simon?”
“Yes. He’s been friends with Clary forever - they have all these dumb inside jokes that don’t make any sense, and he doesn’t even have to try to make her laugh. I can’t relate to any of the mundane things she grew up with… Sometimes I wonder if she wouldn’t be better off with someone who wasn’t raised in such a fucked-up life.”
This time, instead of feeling embarrassed, Jace is surprised by how relieved he feels after the admission. It’s one he’s held in for quite some time, not just from Clary but from his siblings, and even a little bit himself. He may act like Ithuriel’s gift to mankind but in reality he knows his shortcomings, and he’s overly aware of the burdens his existence comes with.
Meliorn doesn’t laugh at him, or ask another question. The Seelie looks closely at him, so intently that Jace actually looks away from the soft expression he doesn’t expect to see there.
“You have more to offer than you think, Jace Herondale. And I wouldn’t doubt the Fairchild girl’s love for you - it runs deep. I have no logical idea why, but...”
Jace turns to the side and lightly punches Meliorn in the arm for the last comment, but the smile he flashes him at the same time is a silent thank you for the kind words even though he just mutters, “Yeah, okay,” out loud in response.
He expected this to be nothing but humiliation from the start, and isn’t prepared for the serious turn the conversation takes so abruptly.
It’s one thing to be honest about ridiculous things that don’t really matter, things that are just meant to humiliate and taunt him. But something like this, something deep and emotional and truly personal … it’s a line he knows he can’t stop the Seelie from crossing, but that doesn’t stop him from hoping, either.
Jace gets his wish. Meliorn goes right back to his previous line of questioning, divulging everything from Jace’s secret love of cotton candy to the fact that he’s seen The Notebook twice of his own accord.
“Okay,” Meliorn starts.
“Stop,” Jace cuts him off, the word more of a pleading whine than an actual demand at this point.
“One more question.”
“No,” Jace says.
“A serious question-” Meliorn insists.
“Please stop,” Jace practically begs.
But Meliorn continues on as if Jace hadn’t said a word. “On a scale of one to ten,” the Seelie begins, stopping and turning to face Jace as he speaks to see his full reaction. “How handsome do you think I am?”
Jace stops walking as well and sighs. “Like a nine.”
“Nine? Jace, thank you that’s… that’s very kind of you.” Meliorn smirks. “Tell me, do you often find yourself attracted to men? Or is it just me?”
Jace doesn’t answer at first, glad his face is already flushed from his choice to wear a leather jacket in the heat of Edom so that the blush creeping across his cheekbones at that moment is less noticeable.
“And here I thought you were the outlier of the Lightwood siblings,” Meliorn says, no judgement, only surprise, and Jace should be caught off guard to hear the implication about Isabelle in that statement but he isn’t, not really. The signs are all there, more brazen than they were with Alec even though Isabelle hasn’t directly said anything to him about liking girls as well as guys. She never offered and he never asked, it isn’t his business.
Just like this isn’t Meliorn’s business.
“I- it isn’t-” Jace starts, stumbling through a way to phrase his answer that won’t be incriminating, but much to his surprise Meliorn isn’t laughing over it, or making light of the revelation, and so when the truth comes out he’s hesitant but not worried, not really. “It isn’t often.”
“And here I thought I might be special,” Meliorn sighs.
There are definitely follow-up clarifications Jace wants to give, and maybe a question or two about Isabelle that he wants to ask, but instead his attention is diverted to the low growl of a demon -- correction, demons, plural -- coming their way. Fast.
“I hate to burst your bubble but you’ve got bigger things to worry about right now than your vanity,” Jace tells Meliorn, nodding behind the Seelie.
It’s probably for the best, he thinks, shifting his focus back to what he does best; back in his comfort zone, Jace is more than a little relieved to be facing a demon rather than more personal questions from the Seelie… which probably says more about him than any answer he might give out loud.
Thankfully the time for words is passed as the pair stand poised and ready, bracing for the incoming attack.