#welcome to my identity headcanons for simon and jace idk that's just how the fic went

[maiaisbia]

jimon with 42~

“I’m going to save you from the terrible date you’re having.”

Ah… Anon this is probably not what you were thinking of when you sent this request. This ended up having a pretty big focus on identity, with romantic fluff. I had a great time writing it though, so thank you! I hope you enjoy!

from this prompt list | on ao3

It was going on thirty minutes now, and Jace didn’t know how much longer he could take watching the trainwreck. He couldn’t guess which one of them thought a date together would work, but it was clear that it was not going well. Simon looked uncomfortable and Meliorn looked bored.

“Are you going to do something, or am I going to have to get involved?” Maia asked, leaning on the bar across from Jace. “Because I can play the jealous ex lover, but I would really rather not.”

“If I do it, will you promise to stop spitting in my drinks?” Jace joked, glancing at his beer.

“No, but I’ll reduce spit drinks by 50%,” Maia grinned.

“Does that mean 50% less spit in the drinks or half my drinks will be spit free?”

“Let a girl have a little bit of mystery,” she pushed off the counter with a wink and moved to attend to a new customer.

Jace could only shake his head and smile, before downing the rest of his beer. Standing up, he moved to the corner table Simon and Meliorn were sitting at. They both looked up as he approached with relief. Jace didn’t know if he should be worried or flattered.

“Which one of us are you coming to whisk away?” Meliorn asked, resting his chin on his hands and turning his pretty eyes up to Jace. Simon was just watching Jace with a soft smile, a little bit of fang sticking out.

“Ah, Simon,” Jace said, resting a hand on Simon’s shoulder. “Should I even bother coming up with some excuse like a mission he is needed on?”

“No…” Meliorn pouted dramatically now, “Pity you didn’t choose me. One day, Jace.”

“Nah man, you slept with my sister, that’s a no go,” Jace laughed. “Come on Simon, you have a video game to beat my ass at?”

“Yeah, okay!” Simon stood, slipping his coat on. Jace dropped some cash on the table to cover for both their drinks. “Um, see you ‘round Meliorn.”

“Goodbye daylighter,” Meloirn said, waving at them both as Jace ushered Simon out the door.

“See it’s things like that why it wasn’t working!” Simon said, gesturing at Hunters Moon. “He kept calling me daylighter. That’s like. The most uncool pet name ever. Plus who even uses pet names on a first date?”

“I don’t know why you even went on a date with him,” Jace said, and fell in step as Simon turned in the direction of his apartment.

“I don’t either, I guess I haven’t really dated guys in the shadow world and he seemed like a pretty safe start,” Simon said, running a hand through his hair and messing it up. “I dated a couple guys in highschool, so back when I was a mundane. It was pretty common to be queer in the artsy circles I was in, you know? Accepted, normalized. Then I end up a fucking vampire, and it’s a whole new set of rules! Shadowhunters, big no go, though that’s changing a bit. Warlocks, seelies, and vampires? Very accepting. I mean, you can see it in the leadership! Werewolves, pretty much like mundanes. Gotta be careful, some are chill and some are assholes.”

Jace tried to keep up with all that, because Simon’s hands were moving and he was talking pretty fast. But he thought he got it. “So you’re bisexual like Magnus?”

“I identify as pansexual,” Simon caught Jace’s look of confusion and continued. “It’s pretty similar, yeah? Bi you’re attracted to your own and other genders. Gender comes into play in attraction, like people may feel attraction differently towards men vs. women vs. nonbinary folks. Pan, it’s like… gender doesn’t play a big part in your attraction to someone. So in both cases, bi and pan people tend to be able to fall in love with people of any gender, but they feel the attraction to the person or people they love a little differently.”

Jace nodded, again not sure he was picking up all the nuances but understanding the gist. “Okay man.”

“Too much of a crash course?” Simon asked, nudging Jace with his elbow and grinning.

“Nah,” Jace said, and then huffed. “Okay I’m going to say something and it might sound shitty.”

Simon visibly tensed but nodded. “Okaaayyy? Not ominous at all and I reserve the right to punch you.”

“I always thought my attraction to guys was bleed through from Alec,” he muttered, glancing to Simon. Simon didn’t seem upset, so Jace took a deep breath and tried to explain what he had only ever thought about. “I didn’t live around a lot of people until the Lightwoods adopted me, and I didn’t really think about crushes until years later. Alec and I were bonded pretty young, so I just assumed that when I thought a guy was hot or cute or whatever, it was from him.” Jace snorted, shaking his head. “But you know what I’ve realized since? Alec and I have a completely different taste in dudes. Like he’ll be zeroed in on Magnus and I feel nothing except his distant happiness.”

Jace didn’t add that Simon was probably the last (male) person on Earth Alec would be attracted to. But boy, did Jace find himself watching Simon, smiling at his jokes, feeling butterflies when he was around, all that dumb shit. That was definitely just on Jace.

Simon, to Jace’s surprise and relief, was nodding, “That actually makes sense. You Shadowhunters are such a heteronormative culture… It’d be confusing.”

Jace shook his head. “Well thanks for the validation I guess.”

“Dude,” Simon just rolled his eyes, turning and jogged up the steps to his apartment. Their conversation had certainly killed some time. “I appreciate you trusting me to come out to me.”

“Whatever,” Jace huffed, though he felt oddly lighter. “I don’t know I like any of the labels you’ve said.”

“That’s fine,” Simon held the door open and Jace slipped passed him. The stairs creaked as they went up to the second floor. “You’ll just find what works for you.”

Jace drew the unlock rune before Simon pulled out his keys. Walking in, he found the place was changed from the last time he was there. “There’s a fish tank and it’s cleaner in here.”

“Yeah, if I don’t do my share of the chores Maia makes me pay a bigger portion of the rent,” Simon flopped on the couch. “Which is fair, and a good motivator because I don’t make much from my gigs.” He gestures to the TV setup. “But she’s a great roommate, and Maia means the game and console collection has doubled!”

Jace crouched and flicked through what was there. He didn’t know how it had been so easy to talk to Simon about things he hadn’t ever tried to put into words before. And now they were just going to play games, maybe order out, like nothing had changed.

Because it hadn’t. And that was just what Jace wanted. He slipped Call of Duty into the PS4 (he had started to figure out all the systems), and grabbed two controllers. Tossing one to Simon as he walked to the couch, he whacked at Simon’s legs. “Move over.”

“No,” Simon said, snagged the spot of player one. He remained firmly lying across the whole couch. He lifted his legs up after a moment and Jace sighed. As soon as he sat, he found Simon’s legs in his lap.

Jace didn’t push Simon away, in fact it felt… nice. Jace relaxed, resting his arms on Simon’s legs. “We’re playing the zombie version.”

“Oh player 2, you will be doing whatever I dictate,” Simon said, but selected the zombie campaign anyway. “Aren’t you tired of fighting these types of things?”

Jace shrugged. “I find it weirdly relaxing. No one’s life is actually on the line.”

“That’s fair,” Simon flicked through the options, yawning. As the game loaded, Simon said, “Hey thanks for the save back there. This is a much more fun way to spend the evening.”

“Any time,” Jace said, and took a breath. “For the record, if I took you out on a date, it would have been much better.”

“Oh yeah?” Simon said, and he wasn’t laughing like Jace worried he might. “If we were on a date, what’d we do?”

“Something like this,” Jace said, stabbing a zombie on screen. “Sometimes a fancy restaurant or a movie or something, but mostly just this. I would have planned ahead and brought good beer though, that’d be the difference.”

“You know? That sounds pretty nice,” Simon paused the game. He sat up and pulled his legs away. Before Jace could mourn the loss of contact, Simon was nearly in his face. “We’re all so busy, any downtime is precious.”

“Yeah,” Jace said, and it came out a lot breathier than he wanted. His eyes flick down to Simon’s mouth before quickly looking back at Simon’s eyes. “Um.”

Simon’s smile was soft. “You know what would really salvage my date night?”

“Take out?” Jace asked, but let Simon take the controller out of his hand.

“I was thinking more along the lines of you kissing me,” Simon said, little shrug of his shoulders. “If you wanted to.”

“I could do that,” Jace swallowed.

“Too late, I’m going to kiss you instead,” Simon’s smile was a little lopsided now.

Kissing that smile might just be the best thing Jace had done in a very long while.