Bah! It's a three-shot! Dammit!

*Bangs head against desk* I just can't stop myself! Bad brain, bad brain, bad brain, just find a way to make a one-shot and then end it right there at one chapter!

Listen to Avril Lavigne's "Head Above Water" while reading this chapter. Like, it is the perfect song for this chapter. Every lyric describes this chapter in summary.

On that depressing note (quite literally)

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND STUFF!

Did December just disappear in the blink of an eye? We haven't gotten any snow here, I mean maybe a little, but nothing that gave us a white Christmas or New Year either. And once I go back to school, I have to throw myself at a musical, so yeah, that'll be fun.

Until then, it is thanks to my new New Year's resolution to finish this story that you've got this. It's not what I planned, but it happened, so have at it.

Yeah, I used stuff from Born to Endless Night, I love it, you should too. What'cha gon' do 'bout it?

And now, I present to you, my final post of 2018!

Enjoy~! :)

Alec sighed and ran his hand through his hair, trying to concentrate on his work.

"I'm leaving," Alec announced.

"Leaving?" Magnus asked. "Leaving where?"

"I have to go to a business conference in Italy. Now that my dad's officially been fired, I figured that I'd step up and start learning about my family's business."

Magnus blinked. "Oh…o-okay. Yeah, I totally get that. How long will you be gone?"

Alec shrugged. "A couple months."

"Months? How long does a business conference take in your industry?"

"Well, I also have to go to the U.K. for another. And Japan."

Magnus tried to comprehend what he was saying. "So…you're really getting into this."

Alec nodded.

"Well, I'm happy for you, Alexander. If this is what you wanna do, I'm not gonna stop you."

Alec nodded, staring at the floor.

Magnus tilted his head. "There's more, isn't there?"

Alec took a deep breath. "Look, I-"

"Alec."

He looked up to see Izzy standing at the door. She had matured quite well since she was in middle school. Now, she could turn the eye of everyone, man or woman, the moment she walked past, and she had an air of danger to her, a scowl that said she could kick your ass and look good doing it even if you were twice her size. She now resembled their mom heavily, and she was also working hard in their business just like their mom. Still, Izzy had kept her flare from her teenage years. She was just starting college while also working for the company, so Alec could hardly comprehend how she managed to not look like she was going insane from the workload.

"The others wanna know if you're coming," she said lightly.

He sighed. He needed a break from work, that was evident, but he also wasn't sure he was in the mood for a holiday party.

"I'm not sure I can do this."

"What are you saying…?"

"Alec, we all think you really need this," Izzy was saying. "Come on, Jace and Clary are going to come up here and drag you by force if I don't.

"Magnus this is for my mom a-and Max. Not to mention Jace and Izzy. After everything they've been through, I'm not gonna be selfish and just abandon them."

"So you'll abandon me instead?"

"Fine," Alec sighed. "I'll be down in a few minutes."

"I'll hold you to that, big brother."

She closed the door to his office and he heard the sound of her heels clopping away - even on the carpet. He dug through the drawer on his desk where he'd prepared the Christmas presents for his friends. They weren't big or fancy, but he put thought into them. He wasn't so out of touch with his friends that he didn't make an effort to be a good friend to them. Five years ago, he had gotten them all charm bracelets so that he could give them a new charm each year.

For Clary, he'd gotten a paintbrush, a pallet of paints, a pencil, a sketchbook, a crayon and now he was going to give her the canvas. For Jace and Izzy, he'd gotten all things Shadowhunter - weapons, steles, witchlights (that actually glowed when you pressed a button), etc. For Izzy, he'd also gotten a high heel shoe because let's be honest, it was her. He'd done the same things for Caterina, Ragnor, Raphael, etc. He put thought into everyone, but he knew that soon their charm bracelets would be full and he'd need to come up with something else. Pins, maybe. With so many friends, it was hard to keep up.

Beside the boxes with everyone's separate charms, Alec noticed the simple shopping bag that had five boxes inside - all labeled 'Magnus.' He had given Magnus the bracelet and his first charm, a little flame to try and mimic warlock magic. It had been lame, but it was all that Alec could think of. Magnus had loved it anyway.

Alec grabbed his friends' presents and then slammed the drawer closed with Magnus's still inside. He hadn't given Magnus any of the other five within these past few years.

He headed out to the main floor of the building where the others were having a holiday party. They all took turns hosting different events of the year, and sometimes it was really cozy to just celebrate a small event in someone's home. Clary and Jace had finally gotten married, emphasis on the finally part. They were living together, more than in love, and yet when Jace had first proposed, she had said no. Turns out, she was just afraid of not living up to his expectations, afraid that marriage would change everything. A little convincing here, a little shoving by Izzy there, and the two made up, proposed to each other on the same night, and then everyone went to their wedding armed with a bunch of 'I told you so's.

Alec first stopped at his own private room to change out of his formal work suit. He felt comfortable slipping on a sweater and jeans. He paused a moment, remembering how Magnus had always complained about his holey sweaters and offered to fix them up. He hadn't ever tried to get Alec to buy new ones, like his other friends, because Magnus knew that the sweaters meant something to him. It gave his friends something to complain about, something lighthearted and fun. It was years of having his friends by his side, going through too many complications to keep track of, and making it through together.

"Will this make you happy? Just tell me that."

Alec opened his mouth to try and say something, but no words came out.

"You can still be happy and be there for your family, Alexander. This isn't the only option."

"I was helpless Magnus!" Alec snapped. "I…I-I couldn't do anything while I watched him…"

Alec finally headed downstairs with his gifts in hand.

When he emerged from the elevator, he was surprised to find Izzy staring him down, her arms crossed like a parent that had just caught their kid sneaking out.

"I was waiting for you," she explained.

"What would you have done if it wasn't me in the elevator?" he asked.

"I've already scared the heck out of two other employees, let's just leave it at that."

She led him over to the pain lobby where everyone had set up a ton of holiday decorations. There was food on a large buffet table along with drinks in nearly everyone's hands. The building had already been decked out for the holidays, but the doors were closed to anyone who wasn't an employee or invited guest.

"Alec, you finally made it!"

Clary rushed over with Jace in tow. Her small frame hadn't gotten much growth in the past few years. It would be easy for her to pass herself off still as a teenager, but her eyes showed that she was much more mature than she let on. She was always cheerful when the going got tough, and she somehow managed to keep Jace on a leash.

"We were worried we'd have to move the party into your office just to get you to participate."

"I've never missed one year, you know that," Alec protested.

"Yeah, well you're always later and later each year," Jace complained. "One day, you're gonna get assassinated and we'll all think you're just holed up doing work."

"Jace! Where'd you get that idea?" Clary scolded.

He shrugged. "I'm just saying."

Alec gave them their presents with the expected results of Clary getting super excited and hugging him and Jace nodding in appreciation. This year he got Jace one of the family rings from the Shadowhunters series - the mini version to put on the charm bracelet, of course. The boys only ever wore the charm bracelets on the special occasions because of their pride, but Clary had informed Alec that Jace kept his on the box on his nightstand (they lived together) and did value it a lot. Contrary to popular belief, Jace actually cared about someone other than himself. Go figure.

It was a repetitive process as he gave out the rest of the gifts. He still wasn't very good with social interaction, but he knew his friends well enough to get along with them without being nervous or shy.

It was about an hour after he arrived that he saw someone come in that he hadn't expected.

Asushunamir had always looked mature for her age, and so it wasn't a surprise that when she walked in, Alec recognized her instantly. She was half a decade older than when they had been in high school, but she hadn't changed. Though there was one thing: she wasn't smiling. She never smiled anymore, and even when she did, it looked painful just to watch. Her smiled squeezed you from the inside out, as though she was projecting her pain rather than hiding it behind the innocent look.

When she noticed Alec, he saw a prime example of that smile.

"Alexander!"

Her voice was soft and gentle, but it didn't have the energy that it once did. It was like she had planned to shout his name, but didn't take a deep enough breath and so it just came out at half force.

"Shu, hey. Welcome. How've you been?"

It was like that with everyone else, with every encounter. 'How've you been?' 'What's been going on in your life?' 'Who you dating?'

She put on that smile again. "Fine. We've been doing well. You?"

"You're leaving?" Shu demanded.

"Shu-"

"No, don't you 'Shu' me, Alexander. You have people here for you, you know that, right? You're just gonna leave us? Leave Magnus? I understand that you're guilty, that you're in pain, but this isn't going to help!"

She nodded. "Look, I just stopped by for a short visit, so I can't stay, but…Merry Christmas. Tell the others I say hi."

"Where are you going?" Alec blurted. "I mean, what are you doing for the holidays?"

She shrugged. "The cemetery. Then home."

"They were aiming for Shu, but Charon got in the way," Izzy informed him.

"What were they even doing there? All alone?"

"He was gonna propose, Alec. He wanted it to be on a special day, Christmas. Shu's always armed, being the daughter of Kandai and Ren'ai as well as the sister of Magnus Bane. She shot the man with every bullet in the clip at the time. No charges were pressed against her, but she's heartbroken, Alec."

"Wait," Alec said, unable to stop himself. "I have something that I've been meaning to pass on through you."

She looked to him curiously. "What?"

"Come on, it's in my office."

She followed him to the elevators and then to his office. He opened the drawer and handed Shu the shopping bag filled with the small boxes of charms for Magnus.

"They're for Magnus. And this one's for you."

He handed her a necklace with the charms that he'd gotten for her, but also a ring that he'd pulled some strings to retrieve - the ring she hadn't gotten on that day, that she more than deserved to have. She took the necklace without a word, never taking her eyes off it. For the first time in a long time, Shu's voice almost broke. Almost.

"T…Thank you…"

She slipped the necklace over her head and slipped the charms beneath her scarf and into her jacket.

"Do you…can you come with me, Alec? To…you know…"

"Sure."

He grabbed his jacket before they headed down the elevator and out the door. He told Izzy that he was going with Shu, and she didn't ask questions. She didn't say anything. She just nodded.

Alec and Shu walked down the sidewalk, breathing in the icy air. Alec saw how Shu, though wearing a scarf, was exposing her neck and looking up to the sky as she walked. She had Asian features, just like her brother, but their similarities ended there. She was reserved when it came to fashion, she kept it simple. Her hair had grown out to her waist, she still wore no makeup, and she seemed to be immune to the curse of acne.

Someone else would love her, he knew it. He just wondered if she would ever be able to love anyone else.

He pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of it, the sound of the shutter finally getting her attention. "What are you doing?"

"Sending a picture to Clary. She enlisted all of us to take pictures of everything we could so she could paint or draw it, make it into art. She's got a business, you know. She's got a website and everything."

Shu hummed in amusement but returned her gaze to be straight ahead. They walked in silence to the cemetery, and then Shu showed Alec to where his grave was. Despite the myriad of tombstones, she knew exactly which one to go to.

"Ren'ai insisted he be buried in a good place," Shu explained. There was no emotion in her voice - no hint of tears, but also no hint of love, either. "There's only so much you can do when someone's dead though. No matter how pretty their coffin or tombstone, they're still rotting under the earth."

Alec flinched, but Shu was unaffected and marched forward. When she finally stopped, she stared down at the tombstone as though she was staring at a stranger's tombstone. She was deep in thought, and Alec wasn't sure what he was supposed to say, so he said nothing.

"It's been three years. You'd think the pain gets further away with time."

Alec took a moment to realize that she wasn't speaking to him, she was talking to the grave. She was talking to Charon.

"It doesn't. It just gets worse. At the same time, the pain feels okay."

She put her hand up to her chest where the ring hung under her jacket and scarf.

"Would you want me to move on? I guess that's a dumb question."

She turned away.

"You'd want me to do whatever I wanted, even if it wasn't the right thing."

Alec hurried to catch up as he followed her out of the cemetery. The streets were busy with people having their own little celebrations, but as the night wore on, more and more people were going home to be with their families.

"What's Magnus doing these days?" Alec asked, trying to break the ice.

"Same as always. Business. Nothing but business. Just like you."

She kept her tone flat, but he could hear the accusation in her words. She still blamed Alec for leaving Magnus; hell, he still blamed himself.

"No! No, let me see him! He's not dead, he can't be!"

"Alexander, listen to me," Maryse shouted, taking him by the shoulders. "They've tried to revive him-"

"They should've tried harder! He…he's nine years old, mom…! There has to be something we can do!"

"Alec…"

"This is all your fault! Where were you, huh? Why weren't you with Max?! Why was he just with Dad?! That…that idiot!"

Alec had wanted to say something a lot worse than 'idiot,' but both Izzy and his mom were in the room. He had enough self-control to understand that.

"Alec-!" Izzy began.

"No! No, just leave me alone!"

"Alexander!" Magnus shouted.

"Just go away!"

"I've seen him in the news," Alec said. "He's going far. He deserves it, after all. There are some snobs who think that Ren handed him everything, but Ren's been a philanthropist helping others get their fame too."

Shu nodded. "My family's more than famous. Everyone…except me, really."

"That's not true. It took you two years to graduate as a police officer. Always knew you were smart but dang. You fit the part really well, too. Ultimate badass."

She hummed in agreement, but the blank look on her face didn't change. "I always wanted to be a singer, you know that?"

"You would've been great, I have no doubt."

"Shh."

"What? I'm sure-"

"No, seriously, shut up."

She assumed a defensive stance and turned her head, listening. Alec was silent. He realized that this was serious, just before she sprinted off.

"Struggling!"

Alec dashed after her. He wasn't sure what else to do. He wouldn't be of any use in a fight, but he knew the basics of self-defense, at least. He just knew that he didn't want to leave Shu alone. Not tonight.

He followed her, rounding a corner before she turned down an alley. When Alec finally caught up (damn, Shu could run. This coming from the girl that was the slowest runner in high school gym class) he took in the situation as fast as possible. A woman on the ground, a baby beside her crying, a man with his hands up, Shu with a gun raised. Alec noticed that she was holding the gun with her left hand despite her being right-handed, but she stood firm and aimed with only one hand.

"Alec, check her pulse," Shu ordered firmly.

It took him a moment to process her words, but he quickly ran over to the woman and rolled her over, checking her wrist for a pulse and then her neck. He put a finger beneath her nose to confirm she was breathing, and then looked for any sign of injury.

"She has a pulse, she's breathing."

"Got a weapon?" Shu asked the man as casually as she'd as if a friend had a snack she could have.

"Nothing!" the man whimpered almost pitifully. "I've got nothing, I swear! I just need to feed my daughter!"

"I see."

Alec couldn't believe that Shu could be buying that story, but she lowered her weapon and reached into her pocket. She pulled out a ten dollar bill and handed it over.

"What…?"

"It's Christmas and my family's got more than enough," Shu explained, her voice still monotone as ever. "Bring your daughter to the police station near the convention center and ask for Asushunamir tomorrow around noon - or Shu, if Asushunamir is too complicated," she added. "I'll give you more if you're up for it, but I need to see your daughter - I need to see that she's yours."

She walked forward, took his hand, closed his fist around the money, took a step back, and then raised her weapon again.

"Now go before I change my mind."

The man suddenly jumped into action, turning and sprinting away down the alley and out the other side. He nearly slipped in his haste on the icy ground, but the moment he was out of sight, Shu lowered her weapon and turned to kneel beside Alec next to the woman.

"Any injuries?"

"Why…?" Alec muttered. "Why…how…?"

"I could tell he wasn't lying," Shu explained. "When someone lies, they don't tremble as he did. He actually thought that I'd shoot. A liar knows that we won't shoot because we're too good for that, the cockiness is more evident. Sometimes truthful people cling to the hope that we won't shoot, but that doesn't make it any less terrifying. And sometimes a liar isn't sure if they're doing good enough. I can't explain it all here, you have to get it from experience. Just trust me when I say that man wasn't lying to me. He was desperate. And if I'm wrong-" She cocked her weapon. "Then I'll take care of him myself."

Alec blinked. "Ugh, isn't that…?"

"What? Illegal? Shooting him dead is. I just meant I'd report this mugging, Alexander. You've no sense of humor."

Alec couldn't tell if he should be laughing when it came to Shu. She hadn't smiled through that entire sentence, but her voice did raise a little to suggest she was sorta being funny. She slipped her weapon back into the back of her belt and started examining the woman.

"Concussion. Her knee was kicked out from behind to get her to fall over, but the man wasn't trying to harm her, just disable her. Grab the baby, we're taking them to the hospital."

"Shouldn't we just call-?"

"It's just a block down, Alexander. Surely you can carry a ten-pound child that far."

She gathered the woman into her arms and then hauled her up as Shu stood.

"Whoa, hey! How about I take the woman and you take the baby?" Alec offered.

"That's sexist, Alexander."

With that, Shu turned and walked away. Shu was, admittedly, taller than he was, and her jacket seemed to be hiding some muscle mass under there since she didn't struggle with the woman at all. Alec reached over and carefully scooped up the crying baby into his arms. He had held Max all those years ago when he was still a baby, but beyond that, he had little to no experience with babies.

He cradled the child as he'd seen others do, making sure he wasn't squeezing too hard but also trying to make sure he had the baby in his grip before hurrying after Shu.

The child was surprisingly quiet in Alec's arms, and he couldn't help but smile as he saw the little baby's sleeping face. Surely he couldn't have been more than a year old - less than that, for sure.

"Eight months," Shu called.

"What?" Alec asked.

"He's around eight months. You can tell by his size, his eye color, his complexion. He's healthy, but he was nearly dropped by the mother during the attack, so be careful with him."

Alec blinked at Shu's knowledge, but he knew that Shu had thrown herself into her studies after Charon had died. She could list every conceivable thing on the internet beyond maybe memes and social media. Though she couldn't empathize herself, though she couldn't love, she knew how loved worked. She could identify when two people were eyeing each other, when someone was cheating on their spouse, and when someone, man or woman, was about to propose. She never said it out loud, but in the quiet moments together when Shu decided to join them on a trip or something, she would always stare at someone, and by the end of the night, that someone would be on one knee.

When they made it to the hospital, Shu seemed to know what she was doing. She handled all the paperwork and called the police station to see if they could put out a missing person's report to try and identify the woman.

Meanwhile, Alec sat in the waiting room with the baby, laughing as he moved his hand around and the baby's eyes followed it without fail. A little hand peeked out from the bundle of blankets the baby was wrapped in, reaching out to try and swat the giant fingers. After a minute, Alec let the baby catch his hand. The baby seemed very content.

"Alec," Shu called.

He looked up and saw a nurse standing beside her.

"He has to take the baby for a check-up, see if he isn't hurt or anything," she explained. "I'm going with the mother. Can I ask you to stay with the baby? Unfortunately, I can't be in two places at once."

"Sure," Alec nodded quickly.

Shu nodded then looked to the nurse. "Bring him to the mother's room when you're done. I'm sure she wants to see her child."

"Of course, ma'am," the nurse said.

Alec followed the nurse down the hall, keeping the child in his arms for a little longer. When he finally had to pass over the baby, he suddenly felt cold despite his jacket and his sweater. No, it wasn't cold, he realized. It was just emptiness. He didn't like not having the baby in his arms.

What an odd feeling.

Then again, maybe it was just the effect that babies had on everyone. The nurse was gentle with the baby, crooning to it as it gave the little one a checkup. Alec smiled. Yeah, it was just the effect that babies had on everyone.

Alec watched as the nurse changed the baby's diaper and then prepared a bottle to feed him. Alec felt a slight pang of jealousy, though he didn't understand why. It wasn't his baby, after all, and Alec was far from qualified to feed a baby. But when the nurse saw Alec's face, he gave the offer:

"You wanna try feeding him?"

Alec felt like he'd been punched in the chest with excitement. He accepted the offer, and the nurse helped teach him how to hold the baby - to support its head and such.

"It's a boy," the nurse explained.

The nurse showed Alec how to feed the baby and how to tell when the child was full. The nurse refilled the milk bottle before they left, heading down the hall towards the mother's room where Shu was.

"He looks all good," the nurse told Alec. "Any fall that occurred was thankfully softened by that blanket around him."

Alec looked at the fuzzy yellow blanket, seeing the gleaming eyes of the baby inside. He seemed to be saying 'Of course I'm okay, I'm tough.'

"Yeah, you're a tough little one, aren't you?" Alec said.

The baby made a small coo.

The nurse chuckled. "He seems to like you. He's about eight months old and healthy as ever. Like a little puppy."

Alec rolled his eyes. Shu had been right. Of course.

"I'm looking for Asushunamir!"

Alec looked up at the voice, his heart almost stopping. At the desk just a few feet ahead of them down the hall, a familiar glitter-bombed man frantically addressed the woman at the computer.

"Have you guys heard from my sister?" Magnus asked. "She's not picking up her cell."

"Actually, yeah," Lucian - aka Luke, husband of Clary's mother Jocelyn - said over the phone. "I got a text from the station saying they were posting a thing for a Jane Doe that Shu found. Woman with a baby, mugged. Shu managed to get there in time, but the thief got away."

"What? Are they okay?"

"Don't know. Cat just left the party for the call about a woman who had a baby with her. They're short-staffed for Christmas, but you know Cat can never resist the urge to help someone in need."

Magnus had rushed over there the moment he heard that it was the hospital Caterina now worked at. He vaguely remembered throwing out a "Thanks Luke" before hanging up without the response.

When he arrived, he quickly made his way to the desk.

"I'm looking for Asushunamir!"

"Are you here to see a patient?"

"No, my sister. She helped a woman and her baby?"

"Oh, that police officer? She's in room 138, down that hall, on the left."

"Thanks!"

"Magnus!"

Magnus nearly had a heart attack on the spot when he heard that voice. It was a voice that he hadn't heard in years, a voice that had never left him.

Alexander Lightwood came rushing over, well as fast as he could come when he was trying to hold a delicate package in his arms. Why the heck did Alec have a baby? Magnus's mind instantly jumped to the conclusion that Alec had a wife and this was his child. Why did horror flood through Magnus at that thought?

"Al-" He cleared his throat. "Alexander! What are you…doing here? Shouldn't you be with your family? I-I mean I guess…is that one yours?"

Magnus was so good with his words.

Alec looked confused, and Magnus had to a clench a fist in his pocket to resist the urge to kiss him right then and there, damn the consequences.

"Oh! No, this baby belongs to the mom who Shu found."

A wave of relief washed over Magnus, though he knew that he shouldn't be so affected by this. "Oh, cool."

"We're just heading over to Shu's room, actually. Come on, you can come too."

Magnus just nodded. "Um-hm."

Alec smiled and tried to make conversation with Magnus as they walked down the hall together, following a nurse guy that Magnus couldn't care less about (no offense to him). Magnus tried to focus on the conversation and stay professional, but he was panicking as he tried to figure out what was going on.

Alec was so…okay.

Magnus shouldn't have wondered why Alec was so fine after all these years and Magnus wasn't. It was Magnus that was messed up, still unable to get over his high school crush. He had thrown himself into his work, but Helen and Aline had never let it go with Magnus. They always reminded him of Alec, and though Magnus knew they only wanted the best for him, it had started to become painful to think about Alec. The two of them had eventually stopped pressing Magnus to go back to Alec and beg for another chance, but they often still squeezed him into conversations and kept Magnus's opinion of Alec high.

Now, Magnus saw that Alec wasn't the least bit concerned with their breakup. It had been years ago, after all.

"Anyway, I've seen all the work you've done. You're a famous designer now," Alec was saying.

"Yeah, thanks."

Alec frowned, and Magnus had a feeling that he hadn't responded correctly. "So…what are you doing for Christmas?"

Magnus sighed. "I just wanted a quiet Christmas this year, so I was planning on joining Shu. What about you?"

"Well, I was at the holiday party when Shu showed up, and…I guess I just didn't want her to be alone. Not today."

Magnus's head fell. "Yeah, she…she's moving forward in her own way."

They reached the room, heading inside to see Shu standing beside the woman's bed. Shu looked deadpan as ever, studying the woman like she was a book. She had taken her heavy coat off, but not her scarf. She wore an army green jacket similar to the one from high school. When she had to replace that one because it was tearing and worn down, she had been so upset until Charon had custom made her one - six pockets for all the things she carried. She had been upset since women's coats always seemed to have fake pockets, and when she had ordered a new one, turns out she got fooled by those fake pockets. But Charon had asked Magnus for some advice on customizing the jacket - and instead of letting Magnus do all the work, Charon had done it himself the best he could. Shu had to commission Magnus to fix it up afterwards, but she had loved it all the same. She loved the effort that Charon had gone to in order to make her happy.

Now, she wore it without fail. Magnus fixed it up every time some imperfection occurred, and he knew that she would never want to change jackets again.

"How is she?" Alec asked.

"Concussion, as I suspected," Shu said. "Beyond that, nothing more than a couple cuts and bruises that'll heal within a couple days." She finally looked up to them. "Magnus, what are you doing here?"

Though her words sounded like she was surprised to see him, her tone and face suggested otherwise. "I came when I heard you ended up in a hospital. Even if it wasn't you, I was still worried. Anyway, I was calling because I'd come to your place but you weren't there."

"Sorry. I planned to be back by 8. I suppose stopping a mugging took a few minutes too long."

Magnus didn't appreciate Shu's new sense of dark humor, but he said nothing. He knew where it had come from, and he learned to just let it roll over his head.

"Oh, by the way, I have something for you. Alec gave it to me to pass on to you, but now that you're here-"

"Let's not be too hasty," Alec jumped in frantically.

"I had something to pass on to Alexander as well, but like you said…now that I'm here…" Magnus began.

Shu shook her head. "I won't be an eternal medium between you two. I'll be in the hall if you have an emergency. Or there's a button right there to call the nurses."

She glided past them calmly, leaving no room for question, closing the door behind her.

Alec and Magnus stared at each other, before Alec cleared his throat.

"I, uh…sorry, I just. I wanted you to open the presents once I had…nevermind, it was stupid."

"Come on, Alexander. You can't leave me hanging. How about this? I'll give you mine first."

He reached into his pocket and retrieved a small box. Bigger than a ring box (why was that the first place Alec's mind went?). Magnus jiggled it around to reveal there were multiple objects inside.

"See? Your turn. You can open it now or we can open ours together."

Alec hesitated, the baby in his arms staring up at him expectantly. Finally, Alec sighed and grabbed the shopping bag Shu had left in the room. Inside were the multiple tiny boxes with the charms.

"Here. We can open them together."

They pulled all of the chairs in the room together and Alec carefully set the baby boy down on one of them, nice and close so that Alec could be there at a moment's notice. Magnus questioned whether that really was Alec's son.

"Mine's pretty…dumb…" Alec muttered. "I hadn't planned to…I mean…it was an impulsive thing, to give it to Shu…it's lame…"

Magnus chuckled nervously. "Yeah, well so's mine, so here we go."

"I'm sorry," Alec blurted.

Magnus looked up from the shopping bag in surprise. "What?"

"For leaving you. For…everything. I just…" Alec leaned forward and held his hands to his eyes to cover them as he cried. "It all just became too much…with Max and with…with Dad and…"

"Whoa, hey, Alexander-"

"I'm sorry!" he spat again. "I can't ask you to forgive me, I can't ask you to understand what…it's no excuse…but when I…when…I couldn't do it…"

"Alexander, slow down."

Magnus leaned forward in his seat to pull Alec into a hug as Alec cried into his shoulder. The baby started to cry along with Alec, as though upset at Alec being upset.

"Magnus, aren't you gonna go after him?!" Shu demanded.

"It's his choice, Shu. After all that he's been through, taking a break might be the best idea."

"Taking a break? This isn't taking a break! He needs you now more than ever and you're just abandoning him!"

"I'm respecting his wishes!"

"You're running away!"

"Well what else am I supposed to do?!"

How do you comfort someone who just lost their nine-year-old brother? How do you even start? What do you say? Magnus didn't know Max Lightwood, and so he had no right to say anything about him. Was he supposed to say 'I'm sorry?' 'Max would've wanted you to be happy?' 'I know you loved him?' How could Magnus say anything like that without really know who Max was?

That wasn't what Magnus should've said, he finally realized. It wasn't Max that he should be focusing on, it was Alec.

"I can't imagine what you felt back then. But no matter what I knew or what I didn't, I should've been there for you." Magnus gripped Alec tighter in his arms. "You were asking me if I'd stay with you, no matter how bad it got. You were testing me, whether you realized it or not. And I failed. You wanted to know if I was willing to fight for you, fight to be with you, even if you were against me. In respecting your wishes, I…I effectively abandoned you. That one's on me."

"I'm the one who shouldn't have pushed you away," Alec muttered from Magnus's shoulder. "I was just…drowning and I couldn't…I couldn't figure out how to breathe again…"

Alec pulled back, noticing the wailing baby and moving to pick him up instinctively.

"I guess I never told you this," Alec sniffled, gently rocking the baby. "My dad came back, he hurried over when he heard that Max…a-and I blew up at him, blamed him for it all, and I…I told him about you. He wasn't too pleased. Said you had a reputation."

Magnus rubbed the back of his head. "Well…I mean I wasn't inexperienced when I met you…"

Alec chuckled. "I know. And I didn't care much, either. You were you, I knew who you were no matter your past. But with everything happening…I don't know, I guess I let my dad's words get to me. It's still no excuse, I know, but-"

"Alexander, you were grieving."

"That's no-!"

"Is that what you've been telling yourself all these years?"

Alec didn't say anything.

"Alexander…perhaps we've both been a bit foolish."

Alec had managed to calm down the baby, holding him on his shoulder and rubbing his back gently.

"You're a natural at that, you know?"

Alec chuckled. "I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just following the instructions I was told by the nurse."

"May I?"

Alec looked reluctant, but he handed Max over into Magnus's arms. Unexpectedly, Magnus seemed to know what he was doing when he held the baby.

"You're a cutie, aren't you?" Magnus crooned.

Alec chuckled. "You're a natural yourself."

"I've babysat, believe it or not."

Alec smiled and looked down, reaching for the box that Magnus had given him. He opened it to reveal a bunch of stacked charms - particularly omamori charms. They were all different colors, he could see that, but the first one had been modified. On the front was the word 'Will' stitched onto it in a fancy cursive with black thread.

"Um, Magnus, I think you gave this one to the wrong person."

Magnus snatched up the box. "I can't have."

Alec snickered. "Well, in your defense, I resorted to giving out charms to everyone in order to keep up with the number of friends that we have."

"I give our friends custom clothing during holidays," Magnus said defensively.

Alec cleared his throat. "I can't really do that, so…good for you."

"The omamori charms are all for you, one for every year. I just…never really got the courage to give them to you."

"Having second thoughts now?"

Magnus didn't answer. "It's probably not appropriate right now."

"Why not? What changed?"

"Just…second thoughts, like you said."

Alec looked crestfallen.

"I wanna do this right," Magnus said quickly. "I kinda…wanna get back together with you. Especially now that we're adults with adult lives and we actually have a clue about where we're going in life."

Alec didn't know how he was supposed to feel. After years of sulking over his mistakes as well as mourning his losses, Magnus felt like a life raft in a storm - almost too good for him to believe in, something he shouldn't be putting all of his hopes into, but he does it anyway because it's better than the alternative. He couldn't process his feelings, but he knew that he had to say something fast.

"Unless you don't-"

"I want to!" Alec snapped, and the baby started to cry from the sudden shock. "Oh! I'm sorry! So sorry, little one…"

Magnus rocked the baby gently while whispering a light lullaby.

"Here, show him you're sorry."

Magnus handed the baby back to Alec, who worked to try and calm the baby as best he could. Eventually, he somehow managed to calm him down, and Alec sighed in relief.

Magnus laughed. "You'll get the hang of it one day."

Magnus grabbed the bag of presents that Alec had given to him while Alec was distracted by the baby. He pulled out multiple small boxes and he realized that they were charms for the charm bracelet that Alec had gotten for him a little before he'd left. That had been so long ago.

"Hey, you get to open my present but I don't get to open yours?" Alec complained.

"Hush now, darling and I might just let you see yours."

Alec made a face but stayed silent. He had his doubts that Magnus was telling the truth, lying just to get Alec to be quiet, but what could he do? Magnus was unstoppable when he wanted to be, and knowing that made Alec want to smile for some reason. Same old Magnus, like nothing had changed.

Magnus opened all of the charms, but found that they had little engravings on the back. "What are these? Hey, are these in our code?"

Alec noticed how Magnus referred to it as their code rather than just his even when he had invented it. It was simple, there were probably a ton of other people in the world who had used it, but in the end, it was theirs.

"I don't have time for this," Magnus sighed. "What do they say?"

Alec raised an eyebrow. "Glad to know you appreciate the time and effort that I put into these things. Here I am, trying to be sentimental, and-"

"Yeah, yeah, just tell me!"

Alec sighed. "Well, they're all along the lines of 'Forgive me,' 'I'm sorry,' 'Aku Cinta Kamu,' 'Warlock dork,' 'Glitter-bomb fiend.' After a while, I started to get bored with apologies that never reached you."

"Aku cinta kamu. You…you remembered."

"Aku cinta kamu!" Magnus spat.

Alec knew that it probably sounded like Magnus's first language, and he wanted so badly to ask what it meant. He had always found it interesting that Magnus's first language wasn't English and yet he spoke it so well. Alec had always loved the hint of an accent that gave a certain touch to his vowels.

But Alec was leaving, and Magnus sounded angry. He probably just cursed him out in Dutch or something.

"A little help from Google Translate and then calling up Shu because Google Translate wasn't helpful and I learned what it meant."

Magnus chuckled. "I never told you I was part Indonesian, did I? Wow, I would've thought that had come up in conversation."

"Actually Shu mentioned your mom was half-Dutch, half-Indonesian, but it wasn't like I remembered it until that particular phone call when she spat it through the phone before hanging up on me."

Magnus smiled sadly. "Sounds like my sister. She really liked you, you know? Short of marrying you herself, she wanted you to be a part of this family."

Alec ran his hand through the baby boy's dark black hair. "I…she didn't deserve it. What I did to her, what happened to…"

Magnus nodded. "What's done is done. I can't really say more than that. I shouldn't be happy about what's happened to her, but at the same time, it shaped her into who she is today, for better or worse. She's at the top of her class in the police force, she's saved more lives than I can count. If you count the serial killers that she's taken down, there are an infinite amount of people she saved if those bad guys had been allowed to continue. I've heard stories from her colleagues that she can manage to empathize with victims rescued, she can make even the most broken and traumatized person trust her, and she can get any person, no matter how dedicated to their cause, to crack under her intimidation methods. And she's prevented countless false convictions, too. There are so many cases where the innocent are blamed for something, and the only one who ever believes them is her. What happened to her was a nightmare for all of us, but am I a bad person for saying that if I could go back in time and change things, I wouldn't?"

Alec shook his head. "No. In this situation, there really isn't a right or a wrong way of thinking."

Magnus looked down at the charms in his hand before slipping off a sparkly cuff from his wrist (very Magnus, Alec thought) and revealing that Magnus was wearing Alec's charm bracelet underneath it. Then, possibly more surprising, Magnus pulled out a pair of those pliers used for jewelry - just producing them from his back pocket.

"Do you always carry a pair of those things around?" Alec asked.

Magnus chuckled. "That's the most surprising thing you can think of?"

Alec blushed. "Well, I'm also surprised you still have my charm bracelet."

Magnus smiled lightly as he began to attach the charms. "Call it sentimentality, or maybe just the slim hope that I'd be able to fill this out one day. Besides, I wear a ton of jewelry anyway, so I seem the most qualified to receive this kind of gift."

Alec smiled. "Well, that was the point when I first got them."

Magnus finished attaching the charms.

"Why'd you keep them?" Alec wondered aloud. "After what I did…"

"Because I loved you," Magnus said simply. "And no matter how angry I was, I never wanted to stop."

Alec was touched by the statement and barely managed to stutter out his next sentence. "S-So do you…you think maybe that we can…can I take it back?"

Magnus raised an eyebrow. "What? The bracelet. You just gave-"

"You know what I meant," Alec sighed. "Can I…can I take back everything. What I said, what I did?"

"You can't take it back." Alec's heart sunk. "But," Magnus continued when he saw Alec's reaction. "You can make up for it."

Alec smiled. "Really?"

"You can start by treating me to dinner tomorrow."

Alec scoffed. "Now you just sound vain."

"It's been years since our last date. I think we should start simple with dinner."

The door clicked open and Shu walked back in with the nurse at her side.

"Visiting hours are ending," Shu explained. "It's time to go."

Alec and Magnus stood as Alec handed the baby over to the nurse. They grabbed their coats and followed Shu out.

"I'll see you tomorrow then?" Alec confirmed.

Magnus gave a smile that made Alec's heart jump. It had been so long since he'd seen Magnus smile. Throughout the years when they were apart, the only thing Alec had been able to remember was Magnus's angered and disappointed face.

"Is six PM okay with you?" Magnus asked.

"Yeah, I'll be free by then. You wanna come to Lightwood Industries or should I come pick you up somewhere?"

"Lightwood Industries sounds fine to me. It's a date."

They headed out the automatic doors and down the street, but Alec needed to go right while Shu was leading Magnus left. Both boys seemed reluctant to leave each other.

"See you," Magnus said.

"Bye."

Shu was already walking down the sidewalk to where Magnus had parked his car.

Alec, remembering back to their first date back at the coffee shop after he had also screwed up things with Magnus, suddenly got an idea that he had to put into motion before he could stop himself.

"Guess we should do something more dramatic than just walk away. Just doesn't feel right."

Magnus chuckled lightly, almost sadly. "We don't have to be dramatic, Alexander."

"But I want to be!" he spat a little too loudly.

Magnus blinked. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I thought drama was what you do best," Alec said nervously, trying to laugh it off.

Magnus's worried face relaxed. "For your information, I don't need to be dramatic. Not when it ever came to you. I just…I could be myself around you. I never needed drama with us, I just needed you."

Alec stared for a moment, to the point where Magnus started looking around nervously.

"Alec?"

Alec grabbed Magnus by his jacket and pulled him into a kiss, hard and fast and messy but with everything he had. It lasted a total of four seconds, but it was the best thing that had happened within the past five years. Alec pulled back nearly as quickly as he'd initiated the kiss and then quickly hurried away to avoid the embarrassment that was quickly overtaking him.

"Tomorrow at six. My office!"

He ran away before he could get Magnus's reaction, but he found himself laughing at the absurdity of the situation - and laughing was hard when you were sprinting away. Alec had a habit of messing things up, but maybe things could still get better. Maybe he still had a chance to make things right.

"I see you've secured a date," Shu said blankly.

"Yeah," Magnus said.

It'd taken at least a minute before Shu had called out to Magnus and snapped him out of his stupor. It had taken another minute before Magnus realized what had happened and had run after Shu to catch up to her.

She opened the driver side door, forcing Magnus into the passenger seat (even though it was Magnus's car). He didn't protest, handing her the keys, since Magnus suddenly felt extremely guilty. He had a date with the guy that he liked more than anything, a relationship that he had high hopes for, while Shu had long since lost that chance. Everyone got nervous talking about their love lives when Shu was present, even though she never showed any reaction to what she heard. She was almost robotic, and whenever a new person saw how their friend circle got nervous about the topic of romance, Shu explained her story without flinching. People always felt bad for her, but Shu didn't have any emotion left in her. She didn't have anymore tears to shed, she didn't have anything left for the guilt and regret to eat away at. She was still Shu, but at the same time, Shu was gone.

Shu started the car and pulled out of the parking lot, driving off.

"I'm happy for you, Magnus," she said, making a left turn to join the nightly commute.

Traffic was light thanks to the holiday and the late hour. Magnus turned on the heater of the car and cranked up the fans.

"Don't mess this up," she warned.

"Come on, you know I won't."

"I don't know that."

Magnus smiled. It almost felt like they were back to normal. He could almost imagine the little emphasis in Shu's words being filled with actual emotion, joking around and insulting her brother at every turn. Magnus looked out the window and watched the city pass by, remembering when he'd first met Shu. She had been introduced as his older sister from one of his father's many affairs. Magnus had thought, at first, that their father was her actual, real, married-to-her-mother father, and Magnus was angry at her, jealous that she had a father when Magnus and his mother had been left alone. Not alone, actually, but with a step father that had nearly drowned him when his mother had committed suicide. Magnus had hated Shu, until she had explained the truth - she was just like him. Her mother was depressed to the point of going insane, and Shu had nearly been beaten to death by her mother when she hadn't even reached double digits. Luckily the police eventually found out about it and her mother was arrested, Shu adopted by Kandai and finally given the chance to live a normal life with a kind and loving parent.

"How about we start over?" Shu had said to Magnus once she had explained her story. She held out her hand. "I'm Asushunamir, but you can call me Shu. I'm your sister, and I want you to come live with me and Papa. Papa says that you can choose a new name, if you want. You can be whoever you want, leave behind the life that hurt you so much. I chose the name Asushunamir out of a book I read - someone who tricked the queen of the Underworld and rescued a goddess who had gotten trapped down there. Who do you wanna be?"

Magnus had just stared at her in shock. It had almost sounded too good to be true. A kind father, a loving sister - a life Magnus never thought possible. He almost felt he didn't deserve it. Something had to have been wrong with him, that's why his parents hated him so much. His father wasn't his father, his mother never wanted to be his mother.

He looked at the textbook he'd been reading before Shu had come in to talk to him, one that the adults had given him - a physics textbook about a ball being dropped but being spun at the same time, curving off in its trajectory rather than falling straight down. The Magnus effect.

Magnus took Shu's hand. "I'm…Magnus," he decided. "Magnus Bane."

"Well, I am unpredictable, so if you're so confident in my ability to mess things up, then I suppose that's actually in my favor. I'll exceed your expectations."

Shu gave a light chuckle, the sound unfamiliar to Magnus and even to her. It was deep and breathy, as though she got tired just from the small hint of laughter. "Leave it to you to put a light spin on an insult to your clumsiness."

"I am not clumsy! I'm the epitome of grace."

Shu's smile looked almost painfully sad. "Thanks, Magnus."

He didn't ask what she was thanking him for. It was clear enough without words. It was what Magnus had silently told Shu ever since that day.

"Go away! I hate you! You have a father who loves you! You have a mother who never hated your very birth! You don't know what it's like to find your mother in a barn having hung herself because of you! You don't know what it's like to have your step-father try and drown you, blaming you for your mom's death! So just go away!"

"No, I'm not leaving unless you come with me. I don't know what it's like, that's true. But I do know what it's like to wonder why you exist even though the world hates you."

She had told her tale, she had somehow found a way into his broken heart. When he had trusted no one, when he had given up on the possibility of ever being loved, Shu hadn't budged at his hatred of her. She had stood firm, she had come back every day to speak to him and convince him that he should be a part of her family.

"Thanks, Magnus," she said, and Magnus knew what she meant. He'd been telling it to her ever since that day.

Magnus took Shu's hand. "I'm…Magnus. Magnus Bane."

Shu pulled Magnus to his feet and kept their hands interlocked. "Let's go home, Magnus."

Thank you for not giving up on me.

"You look fine, big brother," Izzy insisted.

It wasn't that Alec didn't believe her word - Izzy was a girl and he assumed that girls knew fashion, especially Isabelle Lightwood - but it didn't stop him from pacing nervously. He'd started getting ready at 5 and it was now 5:45. Still 15 damn minutes to go!

"You're going to mess up your hair if you keep running your hands through it like that," Izzy complained, grabbing a comb and moving in.

"Sorry, I just…"

"You don't need to apologize, Alec. This is your first date with Magnus since breaking up. You have a right to be nervous."

He laughed humorlessly. "How am I supposed to say that I'm sorry for…everything?"

"I think he's already forgiven you; I don't think he was ever mad in the first place. Well, maybe he was a little upset at first, but he knew what you were going through - what we were all going through."

Ten more minutes.

Alec tapped his foot, needing the movement, while Izzy messed with his hair. "I don't know why I'm so worried, but…I don't know."

Izzy chuckled. "Alec, it's okay. Being worried means that you care about Magnus's opinion of you. It means that you really like him and things are gonna be fine."

"Being nervous means everything's gonna be okay?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. But with you and Magnus that seems to be the case."

"What does that even mean?"

She frowned. "In all honesty, I'm not sure. You two are complicated, but I believe in you."

Alec slumped. "Thanks, sis. You've been a big help."

Seven minutes.

UUUUUGGGGGHHHHH. This was taking too long!

"I'm going down now."

He rushed out of his room, leaving Izzy smiling behind him as she shook her head in exasperation. "What am I gonna do with you?"

He hurried to the elevator and tried to calm himself on the ride down. Of course, since the elevator was a fast elevator that could travel twenty floors in five seconds, it wasn't a long trip. When the elevator doors opened, however, he found that he was staring at Magnus.

"Oh, what luck!"

Alec jumped and nearly lost his balance. He was just glad he didn't yelp in surprise, but when he found Magnus grabbing his arm and pulling him back into an embrace to steady him, Alec let out an exclamatory noise that hopefully wasn't embarrassing.

"Come on now, Alexander. I'm not that ugly, am I?"

Alec felt Magnus's voice rumbling in his chest, only drowned out by the pounding of his heart in his ears. "I…uh…you're…hey."

Magnus laughed and pulled back, taking Alec's hand and leading him out of the way of the elevators. "Underwood gave me a key card and told me to go right up," he explained. "He seems nice."

"Oh, uh…right. Him. Underwood. I apparently helped him come out by inspiring him or something; I'm not really sure that I'm everything he says I am, but I made a point to announce that we don't tolerate discrimination based on sexual orientation - as well as race and sex and all the other stuff. He's a good guy."

Magnus frowned. "You never dated, right?"

"What?"

"What?" Magnus repeated, mimicking Alec's confused tone so well that Alec was caught off guard.

Alec blinked. "What are you-?"

"Anyway, we should go," Magnus said casually and started walking off.

"What? Hey!" Alec hurried to match his pace. "Did I hear a hint of jealousy?"

"Obviously not," Magnus said unconvincingly. "I just wanted to know what you've been doing in these years without me."

Alec looked at the floor as they walked to the exit. "No one would ever compete with you. You should know that. I'd never be able to date anyone after the way I screwed up."

"How long have you been regretting this, tormenting yourself, Alexander?"

He pushed open the door and held it for Magnus. "To be honest? Ever since I first did it. Before I had even walked away, I regretted it. I don't know what kept me going, but once I started, I couldn't stop. I just needed to get away, and I didn't realize how much I was hurting until I stopped and thought about it."

"You didn't let yourself be upset," Magnus said as they walked down the sidewalk. "I kept repeating the things that I should've said to you, how I could've better handled the situation. Especially when…especially when Shu lost Charon, I realized what went wrong. You didn't cry, Alexander. You didn't mourn your brother, you simply stayed in your angry phase. Those stages of grief or whatever? I saw you go through denial and guilt, then anger and bargaining - thinking that somehow if you threw your life away something would change, and that empty hole left in your heart would go away. But you left me before I could help you through the moment you realized you weren't angry and there was nothing you could do. I never saw you do what you should have - cried your eyes out until you ran out of tears. After you did that, you would start working past it."

"Izzy and I got into a fight about it, and that's when we both broke down. It wasn't just about Max anymore, at least not for me. It was about messing up with you. I lost Max, but in the process, I also lost you."

"When I saw what was happening to Shu in her grief, I realized what I should've done with you. I should've reached out to you, made you face the pain that you were running from so that you could start to get better. I guess what I'm trying to say is…I'm sorry for doing it all wrong."

"And I'm sorry for being the bad luck charm that I am."

He laughed. "It's okay, Alexander. I like you the way you are. Don't ever change. Anyway, where are we going?"

Alec turned a corner. The city was always bustling, and now that business hours were ending, people were out on the streets and all of the Christmas lights were going on as the sun set. The city was beautiful during Christmas.

"Let's just say I didn't want anything too fancy, so I chose a small place at random."

He walked into a small sandwich shop/café that was bustling with energy. The two shops had been right next to each other and had decided to join forces, so to speak, so they tore down the wall between them and made one big business.

"Cozy," Magnus exclaimed.

"I know it's not much, but-"

"Alexander, it's perfect. I didn't want anything fancy. I've been forced into fancy stuff for my job ever since I started working with Aline and Helen and then made my own brand."

The two of them got into the line. "I saw you do that short on TV. A kid's clothing line for Shadowhunters? Wish I could've been a kid when you were in the fashion industry."

"Hey, we make adult stuff too. And teen stuff."

"Halloween was filled with Shadowhunters and warlocks and faeries and vampires that year. Well, vampires were already a trend and weren't necessarily the Shadowhunter variety, and I don't mean the faeries as in fairies, but…you know what I mean."

The two of them ordered their food and chose a random table that was unoccupied.

"And your company is thriving still," Magnus said.

Alec shrugged and took a bite of his chocolate bagel. "Not really. We're just about the same as ever, just with a new person in charge."

"But I saw you in a magazine article and a couple news outlets - you officially announced that you're gay and have apparently been an inspiration to more than just your employees. You may not realize it, but hearing that important people are different races or different sexual orientations or basically not the majority, it warms people's hearts. You're proving that being gay doesn't make you any less capable or any less of a person. It doesn't just help all the people who sympathize with you, it helps straight people with LGBTQ friends, it helps parents or siblings who need to prove they love family members no matter who or what they are. I'd say you've done a lot of good, Alexander. You're bringing the world together, one obliviously humble statement at a time."

Alec blushed. "I…thanks. And you're bringing the world together one sequent at a time."

Magnus laughed. "We'll all be united under a glittery flag one day. One day."

The date went well after that. There were more apologies than Alec could count because there were things that just didn't see like they could be apologized for. Still, Alec had high hopes that things were getting better.

"Is that Shu?"

Alec turned around towards the door and saw that a familiar figure was walking in, accompanied by an unfamiliar one. It looked to be a man, shoulder-length blonde hair, Caucasian, just a little taller than Shu, maybe as tall as Magnus. The two were talking with serious faces on, and Alec wondered if that was one of her colleagues from the police station.

"Shu!" Magnus called.

She looked up at him quickly with that alert eye that had become a part of her natural routine. She raised a hand to wave, speaking to the boy by her side and probably explaining who the glitter-bombed man with hair rivaling Sonic the Hedgehog calling out to her in a random coffee shop was. He said something back casually to her with a smile and her frown deepened and she scolded him. He didn't seem fazed.

Once they got their order, the blonde guy rushed over to their table with Shu following at a lazy yet brisk pace. "Hi! You're Shu's brother?"

"I am indeed," Magnus said casually. "And who are you?"

"I'm her boyfriend."

Alec and Magnus both straightened in surprise, looking at each other to see if they heard that right before then looking to the blonde.

"Uh…congratulations?" Magnus said uncertainly.

Shu finally caught up to them, setting her bag and her drink on the table before taking the guy by the shoulders in a motion that both Magnus and Alec recognized. They cringed as she kneed him in the groin before then taking a seat next to Magnus in the booth they were at, sipping her tea as the blonde fell to the floor writhing in pain.

"This is Aslan," she said in her blank tone.

"Wasn't that a bit overkill?" Alec asked cautiously.

"I warned him not to say he was my boyfriend when he suggested it."

Alec remembered the conversation the two had when Magnus had called over to Shu. He must've suggested the boyfriend idea and that's when she had frowned and warned him not to or she'd kick him in the groin. It seems that he hadn't taken her threat seriously - biggest mistake of his life.

"Guess it make sense."

"So who is he really?" Magnus asked.

"Confidential," Shu answered before sipping her drink again.

"Ah." He nodded in understanding. "Got it."

"What?" Alec asked.

"Sorry, Alec," Magnus said only half-apologetically. "Not for your ears."

"Aw, come on." He crossed his arms. "Here we are, getting along, trying to make up for all of our past mistakes, and now you're keeping something from me?"

Aslan crawled up to sit in the booth beside Alec. "That…ugh…went well."

"Keep your mouth shut, Aslan," Shu warned. "Unless you want me to lock you in a room."

"I'd like to see you try, beautiful."

She kicked him in the shin under the table, but the only indication was Aslan's reaction. Shu barely moved. "We can only share to my family members," Shu explained. "I've taken a big enough risk allowing that. And I can't share any personal information, either. Just the facts so that Magnus knows to stay out of it."

"A police thing?" Alec guessed.

She said nothing.

"She needs to have deniability," Magnus explained. "She won't lie to her superiors, but who ever said anything about lying if we just guess by ourselves and she doesn't confirm? But Shu, Alec is family. Or at least, he's gonna be. Isn't that good enough?"

She looked up to him, for the first time showing some interest. When she spoke, Alec heard more emotion in her voice than he'd heard in years. "He accepted your gift?"

Magnus rubbed the back of his head. "Well…no. I haven't given it to him."

She closed her eyes and sat back in her seat, closing her eyes and sipping her drink. It was a sip of disappointment.

"What?" Alec asked. "What do you mean? What's going on? Why am I the only one in the dark here?"

"Oh come on," Aslan said. "Even I figured it out and I just got here."

"Aslan, switch seats with Alec," Shu ordered. Her tone left no room for argument. "Now."

Aslan stood and let Alec out of the booth before Aslan scooted into Alec's former seat and Alec moved his food to his new seat.

"Okay…" Alec began. "Now what?"

Shu got out of the booth. "Magnus."

"What, now?" Magnus asked in protest. "Here?"

"Now. Here," she confirmed.

He sighed and slid out of the booth as Shu took his place. Magnus dug through his jacket pocket, still standing, before stretching out his hand with an item. As it turns out, it was the present that Magnus had snatched back the day before.

"Go on. How about you actually read all of the omamori charms this time?"

Alec took the box of charms hesitantly. "What's this all about?"

Magnus plopped down in Shu's former seat with his arms crossed. "Shu's making me do this now rather than later, so…don't say I didn't warn you."

"You were asking for it, brother."

"I wasn't-!" he began, but cut himself off. "Nevermind, it'll make sense in a second. Alec, just go!"

Alec felt all of their eyes on him and nervously opened the box again. He saw the first charm with the stitched on 'Will' once more, before he picked it up and moved on to the next one. He expected that the charms would each have a name on them, similar to how he had to resort to getting everyone different charms for their charm bracelets since they had nearly too many friends to count. He had thought that the 'Will' charm belonged to Will, as in, their friend Will. Rather than another name on the next charm, however, he found an entirely different word that he hadn't been expecting.

'You.'

Alec set the 'Will' charm down and moved to grab the 'You' charm, starting to ponder what the next one said. He started to understand what Magnus had done, putting a word on each charm. He hoped to all hopes that the next one just said 'Forgive.' He wasn't sure why he was so nervous about it, he wasn't sure why he wanted the next one to say 'Forgive' rather than…

The next one said 'Forgive.'

A part of Alec relaxed, a part of him was disappointed.

He set the 'You' charm down and relaxed as he predicted the next one easily, grabbing the 'Forgive' charm and picking it up. 'Me.'

Oddly enough, there wasn't a question mark, but he supposed that would be on the final charm. He set down the 'Forgive' charm and removed the 'Me' charm, but got a little more than a question mark. He set the 'Me charm aside to grab the final one and read it properly.

'And will you also marry me? P.S. ha you thought this would just be a question mark. I know you so well, Alexander. Love, Magnus.'

"You son of a bitch," Alec blurted.

"Well, that was an unexpected response," Aslan muttered.

"Was I right?" Magnus asked eagerly.

"I hate you so much," Alec said instead, throwing the box at him.

"Hey!" Magnus protested, blocking the projectile with his arms and swatting it away in a very unmanly fashion. "I just wanted to know!"

"Yes," Alec huffed with a scowl.

"Yes, I predicted correctly, or yes-?"

"Yes," Alec repeated. "Yes, yes, and yes. I hate you so much right now, but yes!"

Magnus smiled, looking a little less fazed than Alec would have preferred. "Well, in that case, I also say yes."

Alec blinked. "Huh?"

Magnus rolled up the sleeve of his jacket just enough to reveal the charm bracelet still on his wrist. "You know, I never pegged you for a liar, Alexander."

He tensed up and blushed. "I…"

"Lucky for you that I didn't trust your word about what these charms said and translated them myself." He pointed to each of the five new charms as he spoke their translations. "'Will' 'You' 'Marry' 'Me?' 'Aku Cinta Kamu.' I suppose you didn't lie about that last one, of course, but using the one truthful one to change the subject so that I wouldn't be suspicious and so you could avoid lying more than you had to." He shook his head and clicked his tongue. "I didn't expect it from you, Alexander."

"You…shut up…you're not my mother." Alec crossed his arms and looked away, trying to hide his blush. "A-Anyway it doesn't matter anymore since we both said yes."

"Hear that, Shu?" Magnus asked her.

She unzipped her winter coat and reached into her jacket pocket before grabbing something in her fist and then smacking it down on the table. "I took the liberty of doing what neither of you thought to do because you were being sentimental, and while I applaud your romantic proposals, you each owe me $1000 of your love."

She moved her hand to reveal two rings.

"1000?" Magnus protested. "That was not necessary, Shu."

She shrugged and returned to her tea. "We're rich, so help me if I splurged."

She said this so monotone that it was almost funny. Shu never used the 'We're rich' excuse.

Magnus snatched the rings. "Well, since I proposed first allow me to do the honors-"

"Actually, I did, since I was actually willing to give you your present on Christmas," Alec protested.

"I proposed with you in front of me rather than proposing like a coward with a code," Magnus argued.

"I was being sentimental! I didn't expect to give you your present like that! I wasn't even expecting to see you this year!"

"Stand up you two," Shu said.

She grabbed Magnus's hand and pulled the rings free.

"Repeat after me. 'I'm sorry for being an idiot,'" she said loudly, loud enough to draw a couple people's attention and lower the volume of the shop by at least three notches.

"Shu, you're making a scene…" Magnus muttered.

"Do it," she said unapologetically.

Magnus sighed and looked at Alec. He shrugged and went along with it.

"I'm sorry for being an idiot, Magnus."

Magnus seemed to forget being angry as he heard that and looked down at Alec's shoes. "I'm sorry for being an idiot, Alexander."

"Together now," Shu said. "'Will you marry me?'"

There were a couple gasps and whispers around the shop, and Alec suddenly felt very exposed. He looked at Magnus, who finally realized what Shu was doing and gave Alec an encouraging look.

'Why not? If you're okay with it…'

Alec smiled back at him. 'Why not?'

"Will you marry me?" they said together.

"Yes," Alec sighed happily.

"Of course I will, Alexander," Magnus said a little more smoothly before sweeping Alec into a kiss that took his breath away.

The entire place burst out into applause and cheers. Someone even whistled.

"See? That wasn't so hard," Shu said with her arms crossed.

"My first day with you people and this happens," Aslan commented.

Shu stared between her brother and his new fiancé. "Okay, you guys can breathe now."

They didn't seem to hear her over the noise. Or they were just too lost in their kiss to want to stop. Shu suspected both.

"Fine, suffocate for all I care, but your friends and families will miss you dearly. Maybe not me."

Magnus finally broke away with a smirk. "Oh, you'd miss us, dear sister."

For the first time in over three years, Shu smiled a genuine smile. "Perhaps I would."

"Aslan is in witness protection," Shu explained in the next day Magnus and Shu's penthouse. "That's all I can tell you."

They'd invited Alec over to spend the night, and both Alec and Magnus seemed extra pleased the next morning. Apparently, Aslan was staying with Shu and Magnus, and now Alec knew why it was so important for him to stay by Shu's side. Witness protection meant that not only was he important, but people were after him. With Shu's skill, Alec had no doubt that this was the safest place for him.

"Ah, that makes sense," Alec said. "You don't seem her type. Sorry."

"I use a revolver gun and can shoot from further than any other shooter," Aslan said. "I think that I'm more than a match."

"He thinks he's cool because he only has eight bullets to work with before reloading," Shu explained. "Says he never misses a shot, never lets one bullet go to waste. Doesn't let anyone touch his weapon."

Her phone started to ring and she grabbed it from her pocket, not moving to excuse herself. She didn't really care who listened to her half of a conversation, and she could tune out any amount of noise if she wanted to.

"Yes…yes…just get on with it…" Shu froze before glaring at the floor as she spoke. "What happened?" There was a pause. "How?" Another long pause. "What of the child?"

Alec and Magnus exchanged worried glances.

"I'll be right there. Put him in my custody. I'll deal with the paperwork, but do not let him get taken anywhere else." She clicked the button on her phone to hang up and stuck the phone in her pocket. "We're going to the hospital, Aslan. Get dressed."

"What's happening?" Alec demanded.

"That woman that we found being mugged? She's dead."

Alec and Magnus both froze, while Aslan rushed to his room like a soldier after Shu's order.

"What happened?" Magnus asked.

Shu wrapped her scarf around her neck. "Suicide."

"Her child?" Alec jumped in frantically.

"Alive, but just barely. She tried to take him with her, but the nurses found her. She abandoned the baby and simply killed herself."

Magnus clenched a fist. "How could she…?"

"You know as well as I do, Magnus, what happens to a mother left behind by a man who simply raped her and left."

Magnus looked up in shock. It was a solid twenty seconds before he spoke. "And what happens to the child left behind too…"

Shu nodded.

Aslan came running out of his new room, changed into a new outfit and tugging his jacket on. "Let's go."

"Can we come?" Magnus asked.

Shu nodded. "Get dressed."

They each rushed off, Magnus to his room, Alec to the one he'd been given. By the time they got back, Shu was catching up Aslan on the situation. Shu drove with Aslan shotgun and Magnus and Alec in the back. Alec didn't realize it until halfway through the drive, but he was gripping Magnus's hand tightly. And Magnus was gripping his.

Alec had little knowledge about Magnus's past. He'd never really thought about it, how anything could possibly faze the cheerful man. He'd heard Shu's explanation of their past, but it had never really occurred to him how affected Magnus was by his. But now, hearing about a baby who existed for no fault of his own, having a mother who didn't care about him and who'd rather die than raise the child feeling abandoned and burdened by a jerk of a man…it showed a side of Magnus Alec seldom saw.

When they arrived, Shu led the way and reported who she was. She was told the room the baby was being kept in, as well as the possible witnesses to what had happened. Shu first went to the room where the baby was being looked after, and they heard the wailing from outside the closed door. Shu opened the door to find that a nurse was frantically trying to calm down the baby boy to no avail.

Alec rushed forward, taking the baby instinctually.

"Hey-!" the nurse began to protest.

"Let him," Shu ordered. "Tell me what happened."

As Shu received a report of the incident, Alec rocked the baby gently and started talking to him, trying to calm him. When the baby looked up to him and listened to his voice, surprisingly, he started to calm down.

"He likes you," Aslan commented.

The baby peeked a hand out of the blanket he was wrapped in and reached out to Alec, who took it and started caressing the small fingers with his thumb.

"I like him," Alec said. "Yeah, it's okay, baby. You're okay."

The baby made a small noise that Alec wanted to assume was agreement.

Magnus moved next to Alec from behind, moving a glittery fingernail in front of the baby's face. The baby instantly took notice and lost interest in Alec's thumb, reaching out to try and catch Magnus's sparkling fingernail in interest. Magnus chuckled and kept moving his finger around, the baby's eyes not leaving it. Eventually, he let the baby catch it, and the baby seemed very content, gripping his finger tightly like it was his prized possession and Magnus had officially surrendered it to be the child's forever.

"Yes, thank you," Shu was saying. She turned to the others. "Aslan has to stay with me, but you two can look after the baby, right?"

Magnus nodded. "I think we've got this covered."

She nodded. "I'm gonna go look into the case. Others from the station should be here soon."

She headed to the door with Aslan at her side. They disappeared down the hall, and Alec and Magnus were left with the baby and the nurse.

"He hasn't slept since the incident," the nurse reported. "He needs some rest, so if you can get him to sleep, would it be too much to ask to have you stay here and hold him?"

"No," Alec said firmly. "No, it's not a problem at all."

"It really is a suicide," Luke reported. "Not some murder in disguise. They've got it all on tape. Stole a scalpel and, well…"

Shu nodded. "A shame. To desire the killing of your child…"

"At least we saved the baby. But what'll happen to him now…"

"I think I've already got some people who want to adopt him."

"Well that's great! Who?"

"My brother and Alec."

"They're back together?"

Shu pulled out her phone and tapped it a couple times. "It's all over the news. I'm surprised you didn't see it."

He saw an article about how the famous Alexander Lightwood and Magnus Bane had proposed to each other in a coffee shop thanks to Magnus's sister giving them a push. Luke laughed as he saw the picture of Magnus and Alec kissing with Shu caught mid-sentence with her mouth open.

"Not your most flattering picture."

She shrugged. "I agreed to have the picture released. It's a good message for this time of year. And what's wrong with something that will make people laugh along with the message of their marriage?"

"And now they want to adopt? Moving a little fast, aren't they?"

"It's not their fault that a baby happened to be orphaned just after they proposed to each other. I guess the mother should've waited a couple years before she tried to kill her son and then commit suicide."

"Shu…" Luke sighed. "You know that's not what I meant."

Shu was unfazed. "It's fine, Luke. In any case, I think they're making up for lost time. Married with a kid - where we all thought they'd be long before now. They deserve it more than anyone. Let 'em have their moment, Luke."

"Sure, sure. But you know that they have to go through a lot of things to prove they're worthy of being parents."

"They're financially very stable and the nurses have proof they're good with him. It can't take more than a week."

"Don't tell me you're gonna cheat the system."

"Where would you ever get that idea, Lucian?" she said, her voice blank of emotion.

With that, she turned and walked away.

"You two should start thinking up names for your children," Magnus said, holding the baby boy on his shoulder.

Shu and Aslan were playing the fastest game of chess in existence, and yet they were still playing it properly. They hardly ever hesitated on their moves, at least until the end of the game when it started to come down to the line. Shu had more pieces on the board, but Aslan was in a good position to attack her queen if she didn't move the right pieces at the right time. It was a representation of how they viewed games - Shu valued numbers and Aslan was willing to make sacrifices to win.

"They both have IQ's of over 200," Alec said. "A child of theirs would be scary smart."

"You never know," Magnus said. "Maybe two negatives would create a positive."

"They've just recently met, Magnus. You can't expect it to be love at first sight."

"Why not? It was with me."

Alec thought back to the first time he'd met Magnus in the parking lot of the school, seeing Magnus after Shu's description had given him a much different impression in his head. He remembered nearly forgetting to speak, nearly forgetting that shaking hands was a thing that you did when you introduced yourself. Magnus wasn't what he'd expected, and that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. For better or worse, Alec hadn't been able to stop staring at Magnus. He remembered when he'd seen Magnus helping Izzy with her school project, the first time Alec had seen Magnus in his element. Maybe it had been love at first sight, Alec just was too oblivious to have realized it. It sounded just like him.

"Yeah, me too," he admitted.

"Checkmate," Shu said.

"Darn," Aslan said. "One more move and I would've had you."

"You sacrificed too many pieces in order to get close to my queen. Having nothing left to lose is all well and good, but if you have nothing you care enough to fight for-" She tapped his queen and tipped it over to fall on the checkerboard. "-then you can never have a strong enough drive to win."

Aslan stared at the fallen queen thoughtfully. There was something about his gaze that showed he understood that she wasn't just talking about board games anymore. Alec wondered why he was in witness protection, who was after him, and what he had done to piss them off.

"Shu learned to play chess when she was really little," Magnus said. "Even before I'd met her."

"You weren't raised together?" Aslan asked.

"We were adopted one by one," Shu explained. "First me, then Magnus when we found out he existed."

"I was adopted too, at least until I rebelled against my dad and went my own way back when I was 17."

Oddly enough, that statement made Shu smile. Years of getting nothing out of her and now this guy got her to react that easily? Then again, it was probably Magnus and Alec's proposal that got her to loosen up, and whatever subtext that was behind Aslan's words started to break through her barriers. After all, Shu always loved being more knowledgeable than everyone else.

"As for your previous conversation," Shu said. "It's you who should be thinking up names."

Magnus looked up from the baby in his arms. "Names for what?"

"Your son."

Magnus flinched. "What? I have a son?"

"You will. You're holding him right now."

Magnus looked at the baby in his arms. "You mean…?"

She nodded. "Once I settle the paperwork and you get approval as proper parents, he'll be yours. Unless you don't want him, in which case, he'll be mine."

Magnus chuckled. "You? A mom?"

"I don't feel comfortable leaving this child in the hands of someone who never knew what happened to his mother. They gave him a mandatory DNA test to try and find the father, but he, so far, doesn't seem to exist. I want to be able to tell this boy, one day, that he was loved, that he's here for a reason, and that someone, if not his mother or father, didn't want to abandon him."

Magnus smiled. "I'm…I'm fine with it if you are, Alec."

Alec stared. Hope bloomed in his chest at the idea of keeping this child that he'd started to grow attached to. He couldn't imagine the baby going anywhere else, he couldn't imagine not seeing where he went or who he grew into. Magnus had asked about love at first sight, and Alec started to realize that this was what it meant. It was loving someone or something without knowing what the future would be like, taking that risk that you would love them like the first time you met them no matter what.

Alec sat forward to Magnus's side, putting his hand on the baby's back. "I think…I'd love that."

"Excellent," Shu said. "Because I've already informed the others."

Magnus looked up in horror. "How many 'others' are we talking here?"

She smiled again, this time one of her sadistic smiles. Those weren't as rare over the years as her other smiles. "I told Isabelle."

And Alec knew they were in trouble. Because if Shu told Izzy, then Izzy would tell everyone.

"Oh boy."

Magnus had never taken Robert Lightwood for a kind man.

Ever since the media blew up on him all those years ago, his relationship with the rest of the family had been tense at best. It was his fault that Max died, after all. Maryse Lightwood, or rather, Maryse Trueblood now that she'd been divorced from Robert, hadn't ever been in the same room as Robert since the incident. The two couldn't stand each other, but it was mostly the silence between them that was the scariest part.

Now, however, the two were bantering almost playfully. No, they were bantering playfully.

"I was very involved with all of you when you were young," Robert argued. "I'm excellent with babies."

Alec blinked at his father, who had appeared by Alec's side with speed none of them were aware a person was capable of. Alec, holding the baby, seemed to have a target on his back since everyone wanted to hold him. Magnus didn't know what to do, so he was standing off to the side a little.

"As I recall," Maryse said, "you bounce them."

"Babies love that," Robert claimed. "Babies love bouncing."

"Bouncing will make the baby spit up."

"Bouncing will make the baby spit up with joy."

Magnus had, for several moments, believed that the only possible explanation was that the whole family was drunk. Isabelle had dragged over Clary and Jace to help baby-proof Magnus's apartment, and when Magnus had protested to their methods of tearing up some of his shirts to stuff some crevices with bits of material, he realized that having a baby was a little more complicated than he had initially assumed.

"Why are you being like this?" Magnus had asked. "Why?"

"Think about it!" Isabelle had said. "We had to deal with the crevices. The baby could crawl around and get his hand or his foot stuck in a crevice! He could be hurt. You don't want the baby to get hurt, do you?"

"No. Nor do I intend to tear my whole life into strips and rearrange it because of a baby."

Maryse and Robert, who Magnus had rarely ever imagined getting along, had just laughed together.

"Oh, I remember thinking that way," Maryse said. "You'll learn, Magnus."

Alec had made the error of trusting Jace with the baby so that he could ward off his parents, but when the baby gave a sudden, vigorous wriggle, everyone had surged forward in panic, even Magnus. His attention had somehow focused on the baby without him even thinking about it, so the moment he saw something happening, his body had jumped into action before his mind could catch up. Luckily Jace had kept ahold of the baby despite the wriggle. He looked flat-out terrified for a minute, then relaxed and looked around at everyone with his usual air of mild superiority.

"He's fine," Jace told them. "He's tough."

Magnus had to go out to the balcony in the cold, icy air, in order to try and calm his nerves. This was all starting to catch up to him. This was his life now. He had Alec, he had a baby, he had the Lightwoods going crazy, and it would be long before Ren and Kandai showed up-

There was a knock on the door. "I'll get it!" Clary called.

There they were.

Magnus sighed, trying to mentally prepare himself for his adoptive parents. As if Alec's family wasn't bad enough, but now his side of the family had arrived. Oh boy. In the end, Magnus decided he would stay out there just a little longer.

He didn't know how much time had passed before Alec had joined him.

"Thanks for entertaining them," Alec sighed. "I never knew they'd be so…enthusiastic."

Magnus gave a smile. "I'm just glad your family's all getting along."

"Nothing like a baby to bring a family together. And your dads are really nice."

Magnus sighed. "Shu bails on us right when she might be the only sane one there."

Alec smiled. "You don't regret it, right?"

Magnus looked up and saw the genuine concern in Alec's eyes. It hadn't occurred to him how worried Alec might be about Magnus saying no.

He took Alec's hands. "Never, Alexander. I'll never regret loving you, I'll never regret proposing to you, I'll never regret raising a child with you - no matter how much I complain. I'll never regret writing that little message on the desk all those years ago."

Alec leaned up and kissed him, and Magnus finally relaxed. All the energy he'd lost from the stress and the work of dealing with the changes in his life had suddenly returned. Alexander Lightwood was an amazing person, and he was all Magnus's.

"Think we should get back in there?" Alec asked.

Magnus sighed. "I suppose."

They headed back inside, seeing Isabelle first, eyeing the baby with the longing that everyone in the room had while her parents were fawning over the child.

"Are you going to kneecap your parents so you can hold the baby?" Magnus asked, trying to sound joking but he was being very serious.

Isabelle laughed lightly. "No, of course not. Soon his formula will be ready. Then…" Isabelle's face changed, set with terrifying determination. "I am going to feed the baby. Until then, I can wait, and help you guys come up with the perfect name for him."

"We were talking about that a little as we came in," Maryse said, her voice eager.

Robert made another of his lightning-swift, cat-footed, and unsettling moves, this time to Magnus's side. He put a heavy hand on Magnus's shoulder, while Magnus eyed Robert's hand and felt deep unease.

"Of course it's up to you and Alec," Robert assured him.

"Of course," said Maryse, who never agreed with Robert on anything. "And we don't want you to do anything you're not comfortable with. I would never want the little darling to have a name associated with…sadness rather than joy, or for either of you to feel like you have to do this. But we thought since…well, we thought you might consider, in memory but not as a burden…"

Isabelle spoke, her voice clear: "Max Lightwood."

Magnus found himself blinking, partly in perplexity, but partly because of another feeling he found much less easy to define. His vision blurred and something in his chest had twisted. The mistake the Lightwoods had made was ridiculous, and yet Magnus could not help but be stunned by their offer, and how genuine and sincere it had been.

"Or if you don't like that…Michael. Michael's a nice name," Robert offered into the long silence.

He cleared his throat after he spoke, and looked out of the window nervously.

"I think Max is a nice name," Ren offered.

Alec moved, reaching out not to take the baby but to touch him. The baby flung a hand up, tiny fingers curling around Alec's finger, as if reaching back. Alec's face, stricken since the mention of his brother's name, was warmed by a sudden, faint smile.

"Magnus and I haven't talked about it yet, and we need to," Alec said quietly. His voice had authority, even when it was quiet. Magnus saw Robert and Maryse nodding along to it, almost unconsciously. "But I was thinking maybe Max as well."

There was a beeping from the kitchen and Isabelle jumped to life.

"Formula's ready!"

She rushed away, and that suddenly seemed to kick the room back into action. The Lightwoods and now Ren and Kandai continued on their quest to childproof the place, feed the baby, and all hold the baby at once. Magnus sighed and joined in on the chaos. It wasn't like he wasn't used to chaos, this was just the first time that he'd actually gotten exhausted from it. Exhausted in a good way, he thought.

This was his life now, and he loved it more than anything.

Shu stared at the report of the woman's suicide.

Currently, she was reading off the interviews from the witnesses of the crime, which had recently been transcribed and handed to her.

"She said before she died: 'Who could ever love it?' It was so sad."

The baby wouldn't know what his mother had said, not for a while, at least. He was with a loving family now, much better than anything that woman could've ever offered if she was willing to go so far just to end it.

"Are you even paying attention?" Aslan asked.

"I understand the plan, Aslan. Stop being so loud or you'll be heard."

They were alone on the streets of the city, sitting outside a closed bakery. All of the shops were closed for New Years Eve. She was reading the reports while Aslan looked around, bored, waiting for him to be inevitably attacked.

"They're thinking of naming him Max after Alec's late little brother."

Aslan looked up to the cloudy dark sky. "Max, huh? I like it."

"How did you get caught up in all of this?"

"What? The Morgensterns?" She nodded. "I went to them for help to escape my dad and they made me into a killer. But unlike what they wanted, I still have feelings underneath all this callous murder. What about you? How did you get into the police force? Top of the line as you are?"

"My boyfriend died while he was trying to propose to me. As the daughter of an important figure in the Mortal Instruments company, the brother of Magnus Bane, the friend of Alexander Lightwood of Lightwood Industries, I had a lot of targets on my back. He saved me, and I shot the man with every bullet I had at the time. After that, I vowed to help do some good in the world with my talents."

"I killed a man when I was eight," Aslan threw out randomly. "I mean, he abused me and no one would ever believe me when I tried to tell everyone because he was so popular, but still. After that, well, I was destined to be an assassin, gang leader, all that jazz."

"What was it like?" Shu asked. "When you killed him? After what he did, was it worth it? Seeing him fall dead?"

Aslan shrugged. "That's the thing. I didn't feel anything. I cried, yeah, I was eight, but I cried because I felt nothing. I worried what I was, some kind of monster."

"And how did you cope with that feeling?"

He kicked a rock across the ground. "Dunno. I guess I just bottled it all up and it…it all just faded with the rest of the craziness around me. And you? How did you feel after you made your first kill? Were you satisfied with his death, after what he did?"

She shook her head. "No. Just like you, I…I felt nothing. I didn't feel satisfaction, I didn't feel sorrow. I just…didn't feel. And that should've been scary to me. Suddenly, it was like the part of me that could feel died with my boyfriend. It died with that future he was offering me, it died with that love he had given me."

"It didn't die, silly. It's just sleeping. It's waiting until you're ready to let it come out, because it's gonna hurt and it wanted to give you time to prepare yourself."

"Prepare myself? How do I do that?"

"You don't know? The oh-so-brilliant goddess lady doesn't know how to handle her own feelings?"

"It seems to be the one thing that I don't know, something that I've traded for the rest of this."

He chuckled. "Well, there's no real way to prepare for it. Just have someone you care for and trust by your side and then bawl your eyes out."

She stood. "I should prepare myself."

He looked at her in confusion, but then a moment later there was the loud bang of a gun and she collapsed, blood leaking from her shoulder. His hand was on his weapon but he heard the sound of a gun cocking behind him and froze.

"Morgenstern," he said flatly.

Sebastian Morgenstern, heir to his company that had once employed Aslan and taught him to be who he was

"Hello, Aslan. Was that your protection? Really? What was your plan? To draw me out and have her protect you?"

"I don't need protection."

He felt his weapon being taken from its holster and a shove to his shoulder to turn around. He held his hands up in surrender and started to back up.

"Don't do anything you're going to regret," he warned.

Sebastian's smile was scarily confident. "What will I regret? You're a traitor, a leak that needs to be deal with before you start talking."

"And what makes you think I haven't already talked?"

He shrugged. "Either way, we can deal with it, and I'll shoot you either way."

"Then what are you waiting for? After all, you've been in this business for a few years now, and ever since that Lightwood kid, you've learned to kill without remorse."

He shrugged. "I won't deny it." He looked to his watch. "Thirty seconds till midnight. Perhaps I just wanna be sentimental about your death."

"Ah, so then I guess you'll still get to accomplish your New Year's resolution."

He raised an eyebrow. "What-?"

Two gunshots rang out. Aslan wasn't unfamiliar with gore, and so he didn't flinch as Sebastian's head was blow away on the second shot, the first having hit him in the torso from behind right into his heart. Shu was precise, he'd give her that.

She hobbled forward, her semi-automatic pistol on her left hand. Her right shoulder had been shot, bleeding out, and her entire right arm was limp at her side.

"Didn't know I'd been learning to shoot with my left, did you? That's for Max, you son of a bitch."

"Nice shooting," Aslan said.

"Three years of planning that," she hissed. "It's not very fulfilling."

He walked forward and held his hand over her bleeding shoulder. "You need treatment. Now."

She nodded, but he surprised her by leaning in to kiss her. Without incident, he pulled back and went to Sebastian's body, grabbing his revolver back.

"What was that for?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe I'm just trying to help you prepare. You got what you wanted, you got your revenge. Now there's nothing left to distract you, there's nothing left to hide behind in order to suppress that part of you anymore."

She sighed, grabbing her phone and hitting the speed-dial button. "We got him. Send in the troops."

"Are you hurt?" Luke asked.

"Obviously. Just get over here."

Her voice was near completely stable despite having a bullet in her shoulder. She hit the button to end the call and then finally collapsed, breathing hard and trying not to fall over on the street and pass out from the shock.

"Hey, breathe," she heard Aslan saying. "Stay with me. Start talking about something, get your mind on something else beside the pain."

She took dep breaths. "He knew I was wearing a bullet-proof vest, so he aimed for my shoulder to disarm me. He wanted me alive. I've been hunting that shit-head for years now, I've made myself a real nuisance." She chuckled. "He was an amateur. He got caught because of Max all those years ago, he was the one responsible for the attack. Even now, he was just a snobby rich kid handed everything thanks to the Morgenstern name. He saw my file, saw I was right-handed, and so he shot my right shoulder. He started talking, tried to be cocky, and that was his downfall." She pulled out the recorder in her pocket and clicked a button. "Downloaded. Don't lose it, blondy."

He took the recorder. "I won't." He stuck the recorder in his pocket. "You think you're ready?"

She laughed humorlessly. "Time to let myself feel again? Well, personally, I don't really want to feel the pain right now. It's a little more intense than normal."

She grunted and increased the pressure on her shoulder.

"If you don't do it now, you may never do it," Aslan said. "I'll be here the whole way through. New Year's resolution, right?"

She exhaled. "Okay fine. Here we go."

She took a deep breath.

And then she screamed at the top of her lungs.

"You're still up?" Alec asked.

Magnus jumped, realizing that he was still up. The others had stayed late into the night for the past few days, and last he heard Alec was chasing them out and cleaning up after their most recent visit. Magnus was supposed to be sleeping, but he hadn't taken his eyes off of Max. Alec had been firm with his friends and family, saying that Max and Magnus needed sleep and that they could get Max tomorrow on New Year's Eve. Their sleep schedules were already messed up anyway.

"Guess I forgot to sleep," Magnus explained weakly.

Alec moved to sit down beside Magnus on the bed. "I like this apartment, by the way. I forgot to tell you, but if we're going to raise a child, I don't want him to grow up too pampered. This apartment of yours is cozy. I'm glad you thought of it."

He chuckled. "Well, I come here a lot, whenever I need to be alone, get away from the crowds."

"I wouldn't say Brooklyn is 'away from the crowds' exactly."

He smiled. "Well, it's comfy for me."

Alec took his hand, looking over to the sleeping baby. "You know how my family suggested calling the baby Max?"

Magnus nodded, carefully quiet. He'd never had the chance to know Max, but he knew that it was a touchy subject for the Lightwoods. "Yeah. You wanna…consider it?"

"Do you?"

"I'm fine with it if you are. I know that it means a lot to you."

Alec's voice was soft, both for the baby and with memory. "I was never the cool brother. I remember when Mom used to leave Max with me, when he was really little, just learning how to walk, and I was always scared he would fall down and it would be my fault. I'd constantly try to get him to obey the rules and do what Mom said. Isabelle was so great with him, always making him laugh, and by the Angel, Max wanted to be just like Jace. He thought Jace was the coolest, the best guy who ever lived - the best Shadowhunter who ever lived, depending on the day - that the sun rose and set on him. Jace gave him a little toy soldier and Max used to take it to bed with him. I was jealous of how much Max loved that toy. I used to give him other things, toys that I thought were better, but he always loved that soldier best. He died holding that toy for comfort, Jace had put it in his hand in the hospital. I'm so glad he had it, that he had something he loved to comfort him. It was stupid and petty to be jealous."

Magnus shook his head. Alec gave him a rueful smile, and then bowed his black head, looking at the floor.

"I always thought there would be more time," Alec said. "I thought Max would get older, he'd come home with us more often, I thought I'd be able to have his back and we'd look after Izzy and Jace and we'd all be one big family soon enough. He'd know his boring big brother was good for something then. He'd know he could count on me, no matter what. He should have been able to count on me."

"He was able to count on you," Magnus assured him. "I know that. He knew that. Nobody who has ever met you could doubt it."

"He never even knew that I'm gay. Or that I love you. I wish he could have met you."

"I wish I could've met him. But he knew you. He loved you. You know that, don't you?"

"I do know that. I just…I always wished I could be more for him."

"You always try to be more, for everyone you love. You don't see how your whole family turns to you how they rely on you. I rely on you. You love the people you love so much that you want to be an impossible ideal for them. You don't realize that you are more than enough."

Alec shrugged, a little helplessly. "I'm scared. I'm scared he won't like me. I'm scared I'll let him down. But I want to try to be there for him. I want him. Do you?"

"I didn't expect him. I didn't expect anything like this to come, for me. Even if I thought sometimes about what it might be like if you and I did have a family, I thought it wouldn't be for years. But yes. Yes, I want to try as well."

Alec's smile was so brilliant that Magnus finally realized just how relieved he was, realized belatedly how really worried Alec had been that Magnus would say no.

"Good because if we had to cancel our families would kill us," Alec said and Magnus couldn't help but laugh. "I'm sorry for never really talking to you alone about all this, with the pressure and stuff."

"Shu practically threw him at us and said if we didn't want him, she would. This baby is staying with us whether we like it or not."

"If my parents are anything to go by, we're going to be miserable any day now."

"I'm already sleep-deprived," Magnus sighed, laying down on the bed. "But not miserable. Things are gonna be hard, there's no doubt about it. We're going to have days where we're begging for a break but we don't get one because that's the vow we're taking as parents. But we're not going to regret it. At least, I'm not. I'll never ever say that I regret it." He chuckled. "Well, maybe I will in the future, but I won't mean it. I've always thrived from the chaos, and it'll all be worth it to see that kid grow up with a loving family."

Alec laid down next to Magnus, dangling his legs over the edge of the bed. "I won't regret it either. We're in this together. And if we ever get tired, I'm sure that our families are more than eager to babysit."

Magnus chuckled. "No doubt about it."

"Give me the baby," Maryse said jealously. "You've had him for four whole minutes, Clarissa."

Magnus and Alec had finally gotten some sleep while their families were playing Pass the Baby. Everyone wanted to hold him, and so long as he was in the hands of their trusted friends, the two of them had managed to get in a few hours of sleep before Magnus's alarm had woken him up for New Year's. There were more than just the families there; it seemed that everyone had unanimously invited every friend they knew to Magnus's apartment for New Year's.

He and Alec had joined the others to find they were timing out everyone's turns with the baby. Magnus first noticed Robert Lightwood holding a watch in a death grip waiting for his next turn. Clary's best friend Simon and Izzy's new boyfriend had shamelessly tried to curry favor with Isabelle's father by offering his digital watch to be used as a timer.

He had clasped Simon's shoulder and said, "Thanks, son," which Simon took as a blessing to date Robert's daughter.

Magnus and Alec had exchanged a glance before laughing and joining the party. Alec went over to talk to Jace and Simon while Clary surrendered the baby and went to dance with Isabelle in the soft music flowing throughout the room.

Magnus wasn't sure what happened, but he guessed that Jace had made another of his many unfortunate jokes when Alec, paragon of maturity, appeared to be hitting his best friend/brother repeatedly around the head.

"What is wrong with you?!" Alec demanded. He laughed and kept raining down blows as Jace flailed on the sofa, sending cushions flying, a vison of grace. "Seriously, Jace, what is wrong with you?!"

This seemed a reasonable question to Magnus.

Meanwhile, Magnus kept on misplacing the baby in the exciting game of Pass the Baby. This did not seem a good sign for the future. Magnus was sure you were meant to keep a firm grip on your child's location. He was normally good with confusion, knowing where everything is at any time. He worked in a very chaotic industry, after all.

When he finally did locate the baby with Maryse in the kitchen, the baby let out a fretful little wail. Magnus felt that he was learning to distinguish between the different wails, and he hurried to grab a bottle of formula, ready-made. Maryse visibly summoned up the willpower to surrender the baby when Magnus held out his hand to feed him. It was his son, after all.

"You're good with him," Maryse offered as Magnus tucked him into the corner of hs arm and popped the bottle into his small mouth.

"Alec's better," Magnus said.

Maryse smiled, looking proud. "He's very mature for his age."

Magnus looked through the door to where Alec was attacking Jace on the couch. "Yes, yes he is."

Maryse laughed, and Magnus felt a small bit of pride that he got along with Maryse even after all that had happened.

They headed back to the party, seeing Simon and Izzy dancing - very badly, but neither seemed to mind - Clary jumping up and down with a girl named Marisol, barely taller than the younger girl, and Magnus looked over just in time to see Caterina fleecing Jon Cartwright at cards, over by the window.

Robert Lightwood was standing right beside Magnus. Robert had to stop creeping up on people like this. Someone was going to have a heart attack.

"Hello, little man," Robert said. "Where did you go off to?"

He shot a suspicious look at Maryse, who rolled her eyes.

"Magnus and I were just having a talk," she said, touching Magnus's arm.

Her behavior made perfect sense to Magnus: win over the son-in-law, gain more access to the grandchild. He had seen these kinds of family interactions before, but he had never, never thought he would be part of them.

"Oh?" Robert said eagerly. "Have you decided on his name?"

The latest song stopped playing just as Robert asked the question, his booming voice ringing out in the hush. Alec leaped off Jace and over the back of the sofa to stand beside Magnus. The sofa collapsed, gently, with Jace still trapped in the cushions. Magnus snickered at the scene and then looked to Alec, who looked back at him, hope shining in his face.

"We did talk about it, actually," Magnus said. "And we thought that you had the right idea."

"You mean…" Maryse began.

Magnus inclined his head, as close as he could come to a sweeping bow while holding the baby. "I am delighted to introduce you all," he said, "to Max Lightwood."

Magnus felt Alec's hand rest, warm as gratitude and sure as love, against his back. He looked down at the baby's face. The baby seemed more interested in his bottle than his name. Magnus knew he could do a lot worse than this name, this sign of love and acceptance, grief and hope. Max Lightwood. One of the beautiful surprises of life.

There was a humming, delighted hush, with murmurs of pleasure and approval.

"He'll be Max Lightwood-Bane soon enough, won't he?" Isabelle announced loudly.

"Yeah," Clary said. "It has a nice ring to it."

The crowd of their friends began chatting it up again, and then Maryse and Robert started arguing over middle names.

"Michael," Robert repeated, a stubborn man.

Caterina strolled up, tucking a roll of money into her bra and thus not looking like the most appropriate nurse/teacher in the history of all time. "How about Ragnor?"

"Clary," Jace called from the fallen sofa. "Help me. It's gone all dark."

There was laughter from a few of their friends as Clary hurried over to help Jace, demanding what he'd done this time.

Magnus wandered away from the debate since Max's bottle was almost empty and Max was starting to cry. "Don't cry," he urged, getting the formula ready and waiting for it to heat up. "Don't cry and don't spit up on my shirt. If you do either of those things, I will forgive you, but I will be upset. I want us to get along."

Max cried on. Magnus wiggled the fingers of his free hand over the baby's face, wishing he was a warlock so that he could cast a spell to make babies hush. To his surprise, Max ceased crying, in the same way he had when he was first transferred to Alec's arms back in the hospital. He stared with a liquid, interested gaze at the sparkles cast on his face by Magnus's rings.

"See?" Magnus said, restoring Max's bottle to him, full again. "I knew we were going to get along."

He went and stood in the doorway, cradling Max in his arms, so that he could watch the party. He looked to Alec, who was standing between his parents, his stance confident and relaxed, his mouth curved in a smile at something one of them had said.

"He's changed, but he's still the same Alec. No doubt he'll make a few more mistakes, but we'll look after him, you and I. Won't we?"

Max made a happy burbling sound that Magnus took as agreement. Magnus put the bottle down to one side and pressed his lips to the fuzzy curls covering his son's head. He heard Max make a small murmuring sound in his hear.

"Don't worry," Magnus murmured back. "We're all in this together."

Alec wandered over just as the count down for the year came. Alec gave Magnus a kiss and reached over to fiddle with Max's hand. And so the three of them began their first of many years together.

And then the moment was ruined by Magnus's phone ringing. Magnus passed over Max to Alec, who didn't complain about the chance to hold his son.

"Hello?" Magnus said into the phone.

"Why would you do this?" Magnus sighed.

"Come now, dear brother, you know I can't resist the action," Shu smirked.

He hadn't seen her so emotional since three years ago, before her world had come tumbling down. Maybe they had given her too many drugs here at the hospital. You know, after having to get a bullet removed from her shoulder and all!

"So, you named him Max after all?"

Magnus nodded. "You missed the naming ceremony. For this, I shall never forgive."

She laughed. "I'll make up for it by babysitting. I'm sure you're gonna need it with how busy you both are. Ooo, you should make his middle name Alek - with a 'k.' That'd be cute."

Magnus snickered. "We'll think about it. And you're busy too, big sister. You're a police officer. That's a very important job."

"I won't be a police officer for a few weeks. My boss says that, and I quote, 'You need to take some damn time off.' I'm not allowed to work for at least two months. It's a punishment for being so reckless trying to stop Sebastian."

"Can't say that I disagree with your boss," Kandai said, walking into the hospital room. "What were you thinking, young lady?!"

"I was wearing a bullet-proof vest, Papa."

"Does a bullet-proof vest protect your head? What if this maniac had been a little smarter? What if he'd been out for the kill?"

"He wasn't. I've been a pain in the ass, he'd want me alive."

"And if he'd succeeded? You are my little girl no matter how old you get, so don't you go risking your life like that anymore!"

She rolled her eyes. "I'll try my best, Papa. I just wanted to avenge Max. I figured out that it was Sebastian who…who broke in that day, who Max caught. Sebastian wasn't very good at fighting and he helped give away information that busted the Morgenstern case wide open. I just wanted to be able to tell you that Max was avenged, and now we've got a new Max. I hope that we've made amends."

Magnus saw Kandai's anger fade from his eyes. "Now that that's done, I just hope I have you back."

She smiled. "I'm back, Papa. I've cried my eyes out, I think that I've properly grieved, and now…I'm gonna try and make up for all the time I've lost. Starting with being the flower girl at your wedding, Mags."

"Not maid of honor?"

"I thought you'd both want a best man. Then again, I can play a best man too, if you want. It's not a bad idea."

Magnus rolled his eyes. "Well, whatever you wanna be, I'm all for it."

"Speaking of relationships, what's this about a new man?" Kandai demanded.

"Aslan said he was her boyfriend, but then he got kneed in the groin, so…"

"We've known each other for three years since I began researching the Morgensterns after Charon's death," Shu explained. "He was my insider in the organization, but recently he was found out and we had to take him into witness protection. We planned out for him to get caught and for me to ambush Sebastian - we figured he'd want to do this alone. Hubris goes a long way sometimes."

"And what is your relationship status?" Kandai prodded.

"Girl who just got shot and guy who nearly got shot," she deadpanned.

Magnus laughed as the two bantered back and forth, Shu expertly dodging the questions Kandai was offering. They were a real family again, and he couldn't imagine being happier. Magnus left the two of them to bicker it out, joining Alec in the hall since he and Max technically weren't family just yet and weren't allowed in.

"Hi," Magnus smiled.

"Hello," Alec greeted.

"Now for the next problem in life," Magnus announced. "Planning a wedding."

Alec snickered. "Adjusting to having a baby will be nothing compared to that."

"I don't know. I think Aline and Helen will take care of a lot of it whether we like it or not. And Izzy will be more than eager. Shu will probably want to make the biggest mess possible."

Alec leaned in to kiss him. "Well, no matter what happens, we'll get through it together."

Magnus smiled. "Yeah."

As he stared at his fiancé and his son, he knew that everything was going to be okay.