Lacie: so….how you guys feeling?

Clary: *slumped sideways in her chair and clutching her stomach* Ughhhhhhh

Lacie: wow, you must be really upset that this is the end *sighs*

Clary: not…..that *mumbles as she struggles to sit up* partied, too hard. I can't remember everything…..just flashes of chocolate and dresses and Alec flying across the ceiling.

Chris: I don't remember that happening O.o

Clary: Then again maybe it was my mom, like I said I don't even remember. I have no recollection of how I even got to the studio this morning. I could have died crossing the street. Maybe I did and Raziel revived me and that's why I feel so loopy.

Chris: Or maybe someone snuck Faerie drugs into the punch bowl and that's why you're being strange.

Lacie: Ugh…..*remembers Emery being the one who poured them into the punch but decides not to tell them* anyways…here! *gives her a cup full of suspicious liquids* take this for your hangover.

Clary: I am not hungover! *looks at cup* What is that? O.o

Lacie: It's Alec's special hangover medicine. I asked him about it earlier when he told us about when Izzy got drunk and needed a pick up. So he showed me how he made it.

Clary: *smells concoction of stuff* is this legal?

Lacie: How should I know? Now drink.

Clary: there could be rat poison in this for all you know!

Chris: Good thing you're not a rat. Now drink up

Clary: I-

Lacie & Chris: DRINK

Clary: *peer pressured* *drinks* *has a five second seizure* *eyes roll back* *slumps into chair*

Chris: YOU KILLED HER! WHERE'S THE BLUE EYED BOY I'LL RIP OUT HIS PANCREAS

Lacie: *holds him back* Wait! Alec told me of this! *looks at watch on wrist* give it a minute.

Clary: *gasps and jumps upward* What the hell just happened! My flashed before my eyes! I feel like I could run a mile and then jump off the Grand Canyon and swim down the River Nile and build Rome in a day then tear it down and learn how to speak Chinese and and and and READ EVERYTHING

Lacie: Whoa .-. that adrenaline must be giving you a rush

Chris: You spiked the drink with adrenaline? Don't you have to inject it for it to work?

Lacie: I have no clue, and since when have the laws of science applied in this work of fiction anyway?

Chris: True

Clary: GUYS IM FEELING REALLY GOOD RIGHT NOW IM SCARED PLEASE HELP *can't sit down*

Lacie: *whispers* the last chapter of this fanfic and she's hopped up on adrenaline, great.

Clary: what was that

Lacie: You heard me?

Clary: What the hell do you mean that this is the last chapter?

Chris: it's the last one, you know, Epilogue, Part 2. Lacie said chapters ago that she'd tell us when it was the end, and now it is. Ringing any bells?

Clary: But…but…..but…

Lacie: You get to pack your bags and finally go home *tries to cheer up*

Clary: But…..this did become my home….

Lacie: Clary…*tears up*

Clary: LACIE! *they start sobbing together*

Chris: *sighs* now I have to go help her pack while you fellow readers are reading. And by the way, anyone who still thinks there's a chance that this story will end with a CLACE ending, should walk into a vampire coven. When will you learn? Lacie Abyss has always intended for Chris and Clary to live happily ever after. Because this is not TMI, which she does not own, and sometimes, other characters deserve happy endings too.

Enjoy!

Lacie: *sobbing* I'm going to miss saying enjoy to you guys! (Not that any of you probably read it)

Clary POV

"Gee Magnus," Clary fought to keep a nonchalant smile on her face, "You shouldn't have. You really shouldn't have."

Magnus hadn't wrapped up Clary's gift or put it in a bag, he simply dropped it right into her arms when she went up to hug him after having hugged everyone else. She was holding a thick, heavy, five hundred page book titled 217 ways to use Glitter to be Fabulous! written by anonymous. The word glitter had actually glitter sparkling around it.

"Ah, but I did!" Magnus beamed, "Now you can see where I get my secrets from!"

"Written by Anonymous, huh?" she asked.

"Oh yes. It's a mystery, but how I would love to meet this fabulous person!" Magnus's hair was extra spiky for the occasion, and he wore a black leather jacket over a collarless shirt, tight leather pants hugging his legs. "I'm only joking, this is your actual gift."

He handed her a small box, a tiny purple bow at the top. "Don't open it until it's present's time."

"Thank you," she laughed, putting the gift down on the table with the others. When she turned towards the warlock again, she asked, "But how did you all get here?"

"Magnus Portaled us here," Alec came by Magnus's side, a plastic cup full of punch that the kids probably made due to the fact that it was bright red Kool-Aid.

"But there are spells," she told them, confused, "And wards and stuff protecting the house. Chris set them up, he told me so. Was it that easy to break into them?" For a moment she was worried, those wards were all that protected them from the Clave, well that and the locked closet by the front door full of Shadowhunter gear and weapons, but still, the thought that the spells were easily penetrated bothered her immensely. "And why did you all come here in the first place? Of course, I love that you're all here, but this is my third birthday since we last saw each other, why now?"

Magnus took Alec's cup from his hands, Alec making noises of protest but making no move to stop him, and took a sip from his cup. "Mmm, Kool-Aid. As for how we got here, Jace called me. He said that today was your birthday and that we were all invited. It was only this morning that I got the exact coordinates as to where exactly to Portal, though, considering your house moves from place to place."

"Jace did that?" Clary smiled, "Where is he?"

Jace was currently talking to Maryse and Robert, both of whom had returned back to normal, Clary's rune having worn off years ago, telling them about how well training the Blackthorns was coming along, but when he heard his name, he came right over, asking what was up. Clary quickly explained.

"You didn't have to do this for me," she grinned, "Thank you so much."

Jace smiled, one of those smiles where the corner of his lips turned up, and he put one hand in his hair, "No problem Clary, you know I'd do anything for you, and this was little."

"Little? You made my day," she hugged him, and Jace hugged back, but then quickly let go, as if something stung him.

"You know, as much as I love to make people happy and would like to take claim to this whole thing, it wasn't my idea to make this party for you." Before Clary could ask, he nodded his head in the direction of where Chris was talking to Jordan and Simon.

"Chris did this?" she asked, her voice rising a bit with glee. "If you excuse me," she told Magnus, Alec and Jace in a very serious tone, "I have a brother to hug. The house is yours to explore." She then set off, ready to tackle and bear hug Chris, when Luce and Oz intercepted her, making her stop dead in tracks. They both held up a crudely wrapped gift.

"Clary!" Luce pleaded, "Can you please open our gifts, please?"

"Hey!" Ghayth jumped into Clary's view, "She has to open my gift first!"

"I don't have a gift!" Rhine raised her voice from where she stood on the back steps, "But I vote that we cut the cake first!"

The children had been standing by the patio doors while Clary, Chris and Jace reunited with everyone, and were therefore not noticed at first when they all came in through the Portal, but the second Rhine spoke up, all eyes were on the kids. Luce and Oz grabbed each other's hands when they felt all everyone watching them, slinking back into how they were when Clary had first met them, Ghayth stood still, like a soldier, not used to having this much attention. Back in Saudi Arabia, of course, people wouldn't spare a glance at a poor kid like him. Only Rhine didn't shy away from everyone, putting her hands on her hips, looking undignified. "What? Do you all not like chocolate? Because if you don't then can I have your slices?"

Even though Clary hadn't seen any of her family for over two years, that didn't necessarily mean they weren't in contact. Emery had set up this weird mail service, so that whenever Clary put a letter in the mailbox by the front door, it always ended up in the cupboard of the old house (Man she missed that cupboard). So it's not like the kids were unheard of. Clary had a cellphone, but she hardly used it. She had this weird vibe that her phone would be tracked or something, so she mostly used the mailbox to send letters and sometimes even pictures of how things were going with them, the kids growing up, places they've been to, that sort of thing.

Nevertheless, everyone went completely gaga over when Rhine spoke, having never seen her in person before.

"Oh my God!" Izzy exclaimed, running up to Rhine, "They're so cute!"

Clary spoke to the kids, "Guys, don't be rude, introduce yourselves."

Rhine, though usually the first to speak in every occasion, seemed a little shell shocked now. The twins refused to move, so Ghayth, being the oldest, took it upon himself.

"I'm Ghayth," he said, looking awkward, "I'm twelve years old."

At that point, Maryse made a strangled noise in her throat, but before anyone could ask, Rhine caught along and introduced herself, along with Luce and Oz.

Soon enough, everyone went around the kids as if they were some sort of display that they all had to look at, and Clary, Chris and Jace stood by the kids as if they were the presenters explaining whatever artifact was inside. Jace stood by the twins so that they wouldn't feel intimidated, thought Clary knew that they'd get used to her family and would quickly settle along with them, and Chris stood by Rhine, not because he thought she'd get scared, but because he thought she'd get overconfident and start telling random stories or something.

Clary had her hand on Ghayth's shoulder, and she noticed how he stood rigidly, like he was in boot camp and about to be inspected.

"Hey," she whispered to him, "It's okay, they're not that type of people." The only adults he's ever associated with were those in Saudi Arabia, as well as the people in the Los Angeles Institute, so she could see why he felt a bit panicked.

Maryse and Isabelle walked up to them and up close, Clary saw that Maryse's eyes had gotten red with suppressed tears. Izzy on the other hand, was smiling through her tears, and she kneeled at next to Ghayth. He looked very uncomfortable seeing the two of them like that. Clary just squeezed his shoulder, not saying anything to the Lightwood woman.

"Why are you crying?" Ghayth asked them, his hand unconsciously moving to wipe a tear from Izzy's cheek.

"We're sorry," Maryse spoke, "It's just that you remind us of someone who would have been your age by now."

"Hey look, you've got your first rune already," Izzy pointed to his hand, where Ghayth had his Voyance rune. "How's your training coming along? Is Jace being as good as a teacher as he says he is?"

And that's pretty much how much of the afternoon went for Clary. Jordan and Simon helped take out tables and chairs from inside so that everyone could sit comfortably, catching up on their lives and such. Clary had talked with Jocelyn and Maryse and Robert shortly, asking them about how the twelve days after she had placed the runes on went.

"It was as painful as you described," Maryse said solemnly, "But it worked. When Robert and I were running through Alicante, we passed by several Shadowhunters. Because of the rune, none of them recognized us."

"I know this is none of my business," she started out, "But did you guys get, like, nightmares? Dreams of any sort? What did you do in the last turn when you had to pick who to be?"

"Nightmares?" Both Lightwoods looked at her strangely, "No, we didn't get any of nightmares. As for the last turn, it was simple, we just chose to be ourselves."

Clary nodded, but she also noticed that Jocelyn hadn't spoken a word about her rune at all. It had been really weird watching the grownups Change into someone else, and Clary had been tempted to ask them who they'd pictured to be, but she never did. Clary had always picked someone close to her, someone whose attributes she wished to have, but that was personal, and maybe she shouldn't ask, so she didn't.

Soon afterward, Emery stood up from where he had enchanted the swing set so that it now had three swings instead of two, was about four feet taller, and in addition had an extra trio of swings above the original one, simply floating above, a ladder on the side providing a way to get to them. The twins and Rhine had claimed the top three swings while Ghayth walked as lightly as a cat at the very top bar that held the chains of the swings.

Clary was about to open her mouth to tell him to get down from there, when Emery announced, "So who's ready to hit a piñata?"

Waving his hand, a large, brightly colored piñata the size of a cow (it actually was in the shape of a cow, though why Emery chose that was far beyond Clary's knowledge) appeared in the middle of the yard. Chairs scooted back to create a space big enough to accommodate for it.

Their yard wasn't very big. There was the back porch, with wooden steps that led down to a lush green space with a tall wooden fence enclosing it, of course, invisible to mundanes on the outside. There was the tree in the farthest right corner of the yard, the now two tiered swing set opposite it, a table pushed between the two things, and the closed gate on the right side.

Clary didn't know how Emery did it, but now the yard seemed much bigger, as if it had stretched to accommodate for the larger amount of people and space it now needed. Emery held up a stick with red ribbon wrapping all around it. "Eldest goes first!"

There was a chorus of, "Aww man!" and "That's not fair, that means you go first!" coming from the kids as they made their way down the swings.

"Is this necessary?" Robert frowned as Emery twirled the stick like a baton, reminding Clary of when Chris and she had been training in the turret, teaching Clary to master her senses. For a split second, she almost thought Emery would whack her until he set it right in front of Robert. "We're all grownups here, why do we have to be involved in this childish behavior?"

"I think someone's grumpy they don't get to go first," Jordan whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Robert turned to him, "I am not grumpy! We are all civil adults and—"

"Fore!" Magnus shouted as he took the stick and hit the cow piñata as if it were a golf ball. At first Clary thought the cow would only shudder and stay put, being so massive, but as soon as the stick came into contact with the piñata, it sprang into the air, flying up before coming back down and floating just over Magnus's head like it was being gravitated towards him, but couldn't get too close.

"Moo!" The piñata indignantly sounded. There was a dent where Magnus hit it, making Clary laugh along with the kids.

Magnus whistled, "If that's not a good outlet to your frustration I don't know what is. I haven't hit anything that hard since Jace said he looked better in galaxy pants and neon thongs than I did."

Chris raised an eyebrow, "Mind if I ask what you hit?"

"Why, Jace of course."

Clary looked to Jace, and Jace looked to Simon, and Simon was struggling to stop laughing. She shrugged. Some things were just better off not being known.

"Are we going to break this piñata or what?" Luce asked. "Who's oldest?"

"Clary should hit it first!" Oz said, "It's her birthday!"

Magnus handed the stick over without comment, saying to Emery, "Did you want a try at it?" while Emery shook his head, saying he'd only said that to get everyone's attention.

Everyone circled around Clary, giving her space in case the stick came whacking their way, and the cow lowered a bit closer to the ground, as if appeasing for her shorter height.

"So what? I just hit it?" she hefted the stick, judging its strength. "I've never done this before."

"Come on Clary! Maybe there's candy inside!" Rhine squealed.

She held the stick in both hands, getting a good grip, and right before she was about to take a random swing, just to get a feel for it, she heard Chris call out behind her, "Clary! It's just like when we first started training."

"You blind folded me then!"

"Oh I forgot the blindfold!" Emery exclaimed. Suddenly the world went dark and Clary felt fabric around her face, covering her eyes. "There, that's much better!"

"How is she supposed to know where it is?" Maia asked.

"Oh, she knows." She heard Chris say somewhere to her left. "She's done this before."

I sure have….

Clary flicked on her inner Sebastian, and before anyone could say anything, she swing upwards, like a baseball player, and felt the piñata soar.

Jocelyn POV

Surprisingly the piñata held strong even after Clary had given it some pretty powerful whacks. Jocelyn guessed Emery had enchanted it so that everyone would have a chance to hit it before it actually tore open. She'd seen much of the warlock in the past two years therefore this didn't surprise her. As Maia took up the stick, her hair which Jocelyn had helped to straighten this morning nice and silky, Mr. and Mrs. Greymark stood off to the side, looking at everyone by the porch steps.

"They've been doing pretty well, don't you think?" Jocelyn asked Luke.

Lucian put his arm across her shoulders and pulled her close, "Are you asking me, or just reassuring yourself?" Jocelyn playfully smacked him on the arm, and he only chuckled, "I don't think you, or we, were ever worried about whether or not Clary would be able to take care of herself. I think it was more because we couldn't stand having to let her go."

"And we had every right to not stand for it," Jocelyn defended, "She was only sixteen."

"But you let her go anyway."

To that, Jocelyn couldn't find anything to say. She sipped some of the punch as Maia snapped the cow's tail in half and passed the stick onto Simon.

Luke watched as well, "Have you thought about what you're going to say to Chris? You promised you two would talk."

"You sure know how to hold me to my promises, don't you?" she sighed as Luke smiled. "Yes, I've thought about it. And quite honestly, there's not much to say. There are only a few things I've got left to say on my own."

"He's going to ask you questions, you know." Luke added, "He's going to want to know some things."

"Yeah, that's the part I'm worried about."

A burst of laughter was heard as Jace had jumped onto the cow as soon as it came close enough to the ground. The cow was currently acting like a bull, trying to throw Jace off as he whooped, holding onto the piñata with one arm, the other beating at t mercilessly.

"Hey," she looked at Luke, his hair with grey streaks in it and his glasses slightly lopsided, "How do you feel about Clary and Chris living together?"

Despite what Clary and Chris probably thought, Jocelyn had yet to tell Luke anything about what she caught them doing when they were outside the Gard. First off, Jocelyn had to let this topic sink in, and only until then, was she able to think about it clearly, without her personal emotions getting the best of her. Now, though the idea still struck her as strange, she was able to deal with it, and she figured that she'd have to get her ideals in check before she even mentioned it to Luke. Jocelyn had been frightened that if she told Luke while she was still steaming, that she might not hold him back if he decided to tear Chris's head off. Green eyes or not.

At first, keeping this a secret was hard. How do you not tell your husband that your children were….were….that? Back at the house in the earlier days, whenever the topic of her children came up with the group, usually involving Alec, Isabelle, Jordan, Maia and Simon talking about how they could see how much Chris had changed, she would stay silent, staring into something that was completely normal, like the wall, or a potted plant. One day though, Simon caught her in the hallway, alone, while everyone was outside.

"You know, don't you?" Simon asked. "About Chris and Clary."

Jocelyn had been furious at first, that Simon would know before she did, but then again, this was her daughter's best friend. There were things that she'd never know that Simon would never tell her.

Ever since then, Simon had been her outlet, and he'd been the person to calm her, to tell her to not let her personal feelings get in the way of what she knew was true.

And that's why she waited this long to bring it up to Luke.

"At first I was worried," Luke started, "But then when I heard that Jace was also living with them, I didn't know whether to be relieved because he was with her, or more concerned because he was with her."

Jocelyn laughed.

"But even when Jace no longer lived with them," he continued, "I was still worried. However, now that I see them, I see I had nothing to worry about."

"How so?" she leaned her head against his shoulder as Alec hesitantly took the stick, saying that he didn't want to do it, before surprising everyone and unleashing a storm of pent up hatred on the piñata.

"Look at where we are," he told her, "He threw this party for her. He brought her family to his home, knowing we all have prejudices about him, maybe that much anymore, but still. I think he's being the older brother he was always meant to be."

"Well," Jocelyn stretched out the word, "Maybe he was before, when Jace still lived in the house with them."

Luke twisted his head to look at her, his eyes confused, "What do you mean by that?"

"I, um-" she moved out from under his arm, taking it in his hands instead. "Lucian, promise me you won't freak out."

"Jocelyn you're starting to worry me, what is it?"

"Promise," she insisted.

"Oh alright I swear on the Angel I won't start screaming. Now what is it?" he looked at her exhaustively.

"How would you feel if I told you that our daughter and Chris were, how do I say this, that they're a bit…..incestuous?" she finished.

Jocelyn had been looking at the piñata when she said this, Isabelle taking her turn with the stick, so when she turned to look back at Luke, she dropped her punch and had to jumped forward to catch him by the shoulders.

"Lu-Luke?" she struggled. "Are you alright?"

His eyes were wide open, the pupils undilated. "What, what, what do you mean by….no….Jocelyn you're kidding right?"

"Luke, stand up before people notice!" she hissed.

"What?" he said faintly. He blinked a few times, still being majorly supported by Jocelyn.

"Is everything alright?"

Chris suddenly appeared beside her, grabbing hold of Luke by the shoulders so that he could stand up and without Jocelyn helping him. The instant that Luke saw who was grabbing him he stepped back, looking to Jocelyn and Chris and then of to where Clary was giving Robert the stick.

"Did I interrupt something?" Chris asked warily as Luke's shock was slowly fading away, making way for an emotion that Jocelyn knew was coming. "Is there something wrong?"

"'Is there something wrong?' he says!" Luke growled, and before he could pounce Jocelyn took his hand and asked Chris. "Could we talk? Somewhere private?"

Looking between her and his stepfather, Chris slowly nodded, as if it were dawning on him what this was all about, and lead them into the house.

Clary POV

"Emery you cheated us!" Isabelle shouted, "I knew there was something wrong when Alec didn't break it with the kick he gave it!"

Alec was currently tending to a broken toe, Magnus sprinkling blue sparks over it to help repair it. The stupid cow had been taking way too long to break. Seriously? Six trained Shadowhunters, four Downworlders, and it was Oz who ended up breaking it? Oz, the skinny little ten year old who didn't want to hit the piñata, and barely touched it when the stick came into contact. Even Rhine gave it her all, to the point where the stick was almost broken entirely.

"What?" Emery said casually, "He's a kid, let him break it."

Clary rolled her eyes, "That doesn't mean you had to enchant it until you felt like letting it fall apart."

"Who cares?" Luce called out, holding out her shirt as a makeshift bag so that Rhine and she could collect fallen sweets. "Candy!"

Everyone bent to the ground, picking up candy, even if they weren't going to eat it, it was fun just to go through the motions.

"Is that a Tootsie Roll?" Simon asked.

Clary picked up a Jolly Rancher, "I thought you couldn't eat anything but blood?"

"I'm learning! I'm able to eat more human food again," he smiled through a mouth full of Tootsie. "I can drink any liquids now, and last week Isabelle made pasta, and I ate half of it before I was starting to feel sick!"

"Then again," she whispered quietly, "That could have just been Isabelle's cooking making you sick."

"Actually, since she's been living with her mom, she picked up a few things."

"So no more jokes about Isabelle's cooking?" Clary gasped.

"No more." He nodded proudly.

"What are you guys talking about?" A cherry red high heeled shoe came into their view on the ground, and Isabelle lowered herself to see their faces. "I thought I heard my name."

"Nope."

"You heard wrong."

"Huh," she shrugged, walking away while Clary and Simon snickered as if they were ten years old.

Emery and Magnus made the mess from the piñata disappear, and soon the table was in the center of the yard, a large chocolate cake with nineteen lit birthday candles lighting up the icing that was written with loopy red letters Happy Birthday Clary.

"Cake!" Rhine bolted for the table, the twins laughing right behind her. Ghayth grabbed Clary by the hand and rushed her to the table, telling her stand behind it so that they could all sing. Looking up from the table, she noticed that Chris, her mother, and Luke missing, and was just about to bring it up when they came out from inside the house, joining everyone that surrounded the table.

The three of them looked like they'd just walked through a mine field and were glad to have come out alive. Chris made eye contact with her, giving her the 'I'll tell you later look' and rounded the table to stand next to the kids.

They sang happy birthday, she blew out her candles (with the twins help on either side of her) cut the cake, and soon everyone was shoving presents in her face.

Maia and Jordan gave her an iPod, not the newer ones, with all the apps and stuff, but just the old one's for songs. When iPods were meant to JUST have songs. Maia said that her present was the iPod itself, and Jordan says he personally picked out the songs.

Isabelle gave her a fabulous and luxurious turquoise dress that must have cost a fortune, and was so extravagant that Clary was afraid she'll never have a reason to wear it, or be able to pull it off.

"You don't need a reason to wear it!" Isabelle scoffed when Clary told her, "Just wear it any random day. That's what I do with any clothes that are too glamorous to sit in my closet."

"She's not kidding," Simon said, "One day she came down the stairs with a pure white dress on, full makeup, full hairdo, and looking so glamourous I thought we were getting married and that I forgot it was our wedding day. Turns out it was just Tuesday and she was bored."

"Maybe you'll get to wear that dress again, but a bigger reason Isabelle," Clary hinted madly at Simon, to which he would have blushed if he had a beating heart.

In one of Simon's letters to Clary, to which he would tell her random things such as 'Today we played chess. Never beat Isabelle at chess, you will find a bishop where a bishop should never be if you do,' and 'I freaked out because I opened the front door and we were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Did that ever happen to you?'

But once, he sent her a huge letter, saying that Emery had offered to try to make him mortal, and that Simon had seriously considered it, but he had ultimately refused. He wrote to her, "I don't know. Something about it doesn't seem right. Also, I don't want anything that happened to Jace to happen to me. Even if he is healing a bit."

It was true, Jace's arm still changed from random substance to random substance, but now, thanks to some hard mental training, he can now urge his arm to take the form of something. At least now he could make his arm look human, but every once in a while he'd forget and he'd suddenly have leafy foliage coming from his arm. Rumor has it that a girl that one day came to the Los Angeles Institute to stay the night, a friend of Helen Blackthorn, was also part faerie, and had taken a liking to Jace, and his arm instantly. Clary didn't know if it was true, but perhaps that was a story for another day.

"So are you guys talking about weddings now?" Magnus came into view. "Because if you do leave the designs to me."

Isabelle laughed, though she and Simon looked rather awkward now.

Alec walked up to Clary, holding up an envelope. "Speaking of weddings, I didn't have time to get you an actual gift, but I hope this suffices."

Clary quirked her eyes at him, before opening the elegant envelope, suddenly everyone's eyes were on her. Alec was looking calm, calmer than he normally did, as if he was extremely nervous about this but decided that he really didn't care, and whatever that was, Clary would like to know.

Looking into the envelope, Clary read something, and then she squealed like a complete girl.

"Oh my," she exclaimed. It was in invitation to Alec's and Magnus's wedding, "You're getting married! Congratulations!"

Clary smiled wide, giving Alec and Magnus a bear hug. Apparently, Clary was the first to hear of this, because suddenly everyone was all over them, congratulating them and saying that they were happy for them. And Clary was. She was really happy for them. Even Robert could see the happiness on Alec's face and hugged his son and his fiancé. Maryse was holding back tears, and considering it was the second time that day that Clary's seen this, she thought she was lucky, because Maryse didn't seem like someone who cried often.

"She's pretty much accepted them already," Isabelle told Clary when she saw her staring at her mom hugging Alec and eventually even hugging Magnus, who took the hug by surprise but quickly returned the gesture to his future mother in law. "She's much more used to seeing them together and stuff. Dad's still uncomfortable with it from time to time, used to choke whenever he saw them kissing, but it's getting better."

"What about things between your dad and you?" Clary brought up. "Are you two alright?"

Isabelle shrugged, "We didn't really talk much for the first few weeks after you, Chris and Jace left. He tried to talk to me, but I would escape and avoid him. Then one day, I don't know what happened, we started talking, things loosened up, and I think we're okay now. He even accepted my relationship with Simon."

"Really?"

"Well, I argued that if Alec gets to go out with an immortal, why shouldn't I?" Izzy said casually. "I really don't care if he accepts it or not either way." But the way she said it so flippantly gave Clary the idea that maybe she did care, even if it was only a little bit.

Magnus came between them, putting his arms around his their shoulders, "Clary, Isabelle, I want you two to be my bridesmaids. I already asked Maia, and I already contacted Catarina Loss, the warlock that helped to awaken your mother when she was in a coma-"

"What?" Clary said, "Doesn't she represent the warlocks in the Clave! Won't she tell on you?"

Magnus waved the matter aside, "Clarissa please, I know how to choose my allies. Catarina and I have known each other for a long time, she has no reason to give us up to the Clave. How do you think I've kept us in touch with the Clave's activities in the past two years?" It was true, sometimes Magnus would send them reports of things like what the Clave discussed about the search for Clary and Chris as well as the Lightwood family and others. Nowadays though, it seemed the search for them has quieted down, but she didn't know how to feel about that.

"Alright then," Clary let the topic slide as Isabelle bounded off somewhere, "What about you Magnus? Are you okay with this?"

"Whatever do you mean by that?" he looked at her, his cat like eyes boring into her. When Clary looked to Alec as he was pushing Izzy on the swing as if they were both ten years younger. "Oh, I see. You're concerned for whether I'm okay with tying myself to Alec despite the fact that he'll grow old and die while I continue living."

He said it with such ease that Clary knew that this was something he must have thought a lot. There were dark circles beneath his ancient looking eyes that suggested sleepless nights, and Clary felt her heart twist. It was one thing to know that you'd live forever, that your friends and family would die off and you'd continue living, but to do it alongside them, to watch them age? That took courage, and Clary admired Magnus for it, and felt saddened to know that Simon had resigned himself to the same fate.

"I love Alec," Magnus told her, his eyes watching Alec's form as he jumped up to grasp the second tiered swings and brought himself up to the seat, the kids laughing below him. "He's the first Shadowhunter I've ever come to love in this way, and it only seems right to do this. If my good friend Tessa could do it, then I can do it as well."

"Tessa? You mean Tessa Gray? You know her?" Clary asked.

"Of course I do. You've heard of her, I see." He noticed.

"Jace has told me of her." As if on cue, Jace and Alec came to stand by them, their hair windswept from the swings. "She's at the Institute in Los Angeles."

"Who? Tessa?" Jace asked. "She's a warlock, right?"

"Well, I don't know if you can consider her a warlock, considering she has no warlock's mark, but she's a very special person." Magnus told them.

"She married my ancestor, didn't she?" Jace questioned.

"William Herondale," Alec nodded, surprisingly, "Magnus told me of him. There are some interesting stories surrounding him."

"Well, more like you read it in my biography." Magnus corrected. "I did write my life story for you to know."

"And it was loooong." Alec emphasized, making Magnus lightly pull on his hair.

"You knew my ancestor?" Jace frowned. "That's mega creepy."

"Not that creepy." Magnus said, defensively. "It's nice to have some background information on someone before you meet them. Though I have to say, I knew there was something about you that seemed familiar when I first met you, although then I couldn't say what."

"So what's the story with Jace's ancestors?" Clary asked.

Magnus pressed his lips. "It's rather a long story."

"We've got time." Clary extended her arms, "And it's my birthday, I want to hear a story." She raised her voice, "Right kids?"

"A story?" They all chimed in and started begging, 'Uncle Magnus' to tell them a story.

"Please Mr. Kitty eyes?" Rhine pouted, making everyone sneer.

"Oh alright, might as well do this right then." He snapped his fingers, making a massive chair and a fire pit appear in the middle of the yard. "Everyone take a seat on the porch, it is story time. And please children," he added, "Just Magnus, no Uncle, or Mr. Kitty eyes. Magnus is just fine."

Soon enough everyone situated themselves on the porch steps, leaning against the railing, or even pulling chairs onto the deck so that they could see. Even Emery sat cross legged on the railing, saying that he's been out of normal events for so long that he probably doesn't know anything about this.

"It was 1800's, and unknown to the Shadowhunter world, a girl was sailing in from America to England, starting a journey that would mark the lives of many people. I call this story, the story of the Infernal Devices." His hands created blue sparks, and the fire pit's flames twisted so that an image of a boat coming to port was shaped in the flames.

"Just because he has his story chair suddenly he gets all dramatic." Jace whispered, making Luce and Oz shhhh him, leaving Clary curious as to how he knew that was Magnus's story chair.

Chris sat next to Clary, and together, watching in awe, they learned of not only Jace's ancestors, but of the Lightwood family, and even the Fairchilds.

The story of the Infernal Devices was truly one to never be forgotten. Clary had no idea that what she had done to Brother Zachariah, to Jem, had solved such an enormous problem for him, that thanks to her rune, he could now live with the love of his life, with Tessa. Magnus told them that they were getting married soon as well, and that they were going to make it so that they were all invited too. Without the Clave finding out, of course.

When Magnus finished telling his tale, everyone took the rest of the evening light to chat amongst themselves as they still sat cozily together on the porch steps. Simon talked about how the basement behind the T.V in the old apartment was really looking awesome now, and that he had added some rooms to it. He says it wasn't the big house he's always wanted, but Isabelle was happy with it for now, and that someday they'll get their own home as well. Jocelyn and Luke said that they had moved out of the apartment house after finding a quiet place for them in London. They said they were grateful to the Lightwoods for letting them stay, but they didn't want to be a burden. Especially since the Graymark family was about to have a family of its own.

"Mom you're pregnant?! Really?" Clary announced louder than necessary.

"It's not for certain yet," Jocelyn advised her, "We're not completely sure."

But Luke wrapped his arms around her belly, as if he could smell the child within her growing. A happy smile was on his face, and Clary wouldn't feel happier for them.

Sure, she'd have a younger sibling who was almost twenty years younger than her, but she's gone through weirder things, right?

Even Chris looked slightly deterred by this fact, but he quickly shook it off and shrugged, as if finding out that you had a sibling was completely normal.

Well, actually, for him it was. Not the first time it's happened.

Maia and Jordan announced that they'd found a pack in Australia, where they were both very comfortable and happy to be.

"They tried introducing Vegemite to us though." Maia frowned, "It was gross."

Emery said that he was sometimes at the apartment, and sometimes not.

"Now that you guys aren't doing anything interesting anymore, it's quite boring." He reasoned.

"Well, so sorry that now that we're not risking our arms for your entertainment," Jace dripped sarcasm.

"I actually think I can sense something worth being at about to happen. Maybe not now, perhaps in another two years or so, but it's going to be amazing," he smiled brilliantly, not happily, but as if he were a mad scientist that just made a nuclear weapon. "It has to do with those students of yours Jace, the Blackthorns and that Carstairs girl."

"Emma?" Jace asked, "She's only, like, fourteen, fifteen years old, she's a great Shadowhunter though, maybe even up to my level. And how can you sense that something's going to happen anyway?"

Emery shrugged, his mind already on something else as if this conversation bored him already. Clary touched Jace's arm, telling him to let it go.

"Magnus, I thought we agreed it'd be a small wedding." Alec spoke loudly.

"We did, I only plan on inviting about a hundred to three hundred people, dear," Magnus replied.

"That is not small!"

"Will you two ladies stop arguing over wedding details," Maia joked.

Alec puffed up like a bird, "We're not ladies."

"Well one of you has to be the lady," Chris brought up.

"Magnus did ask me to be his bridesmaid." Clary also added. "But I feel like Magnus sometimes carries that husbandly glow."

"Are you suggesting my brother isn't manly?" Izzy mocked surprise.

"I don't know, I can see Alec wearing the pants of the relationship, but then again," Simon spoke evenly, scratching his chin as if in thought, "Magnus can be pretty commanding."

"Alec would look nice in a white dress," Maryse quirked, making everyone hold in their laughter, "Though I did think that I'd be helping Isabelle pick out her wedding dress, not my son."

"I am not wearing a gown!" Alec stuttered.

"Well I can't wear white," Magnus said, "It isn't my color. Alec my dear, you'll have to do it instead."

"Wait, how will you guys even get married with the Clave after you?" Maia asked, interrupting Alec, who looked like he was ready to die.

"Don't worry about the Clave for so long," Emery insisted, "They'll change their mind about all of you soon enough. They're about as indecisive as the sea coming onto the shore."

"He's right," Magnus agreed. "After a while, they'll find that there's really no point in finding us other than to heal their broken pride. They'll change their mind."

"Well I hope you're right," Chris spoke up, "Because the kids want to Ascend one day."

"Yeah! I want to be a Shadowhunter just like Jace and Ghayth!" Luce complained, crossing her arms across her chest, her heterochromatic eyes dazzling in the fire light.

"You do realize that being a Shadowhunter is no easy job, right?" Robert asked her.

That was when Oz, in a tone that made him sound a hundred years old, put his eyes on Robert, making the grown man squirm as if having the little ten year old boy with strange eyes stare at him scared the jujubes out of him. "Since when has life ever been easy in the first place?"

Robert cleared his throat, "I'm only saying, don't take this lightly."

"We're not!" Rhine said indignantly. "Just cause we're still mundanes doesn't mean we don't know what all this means. That there are weird and creepy demon thingies out there that want to kill people for fun, and I want to help stop that because killing people for fun is not cool."

"You heard her," Clary said, taking Rhine into her lap, "It's not cool man."

"Says the girl who killed the Counsel." Simon whispered loudly.

"Simon!" Clary warned.

"You killed a guy!" Rhine exclaimed, her eyes wide. The twins looked startled, but Oz looked impressed. Ghayth looked taken aback, but otherwise he was alright.

"Now look what you've done!" Clary told Simon. "Now I have to explain it to them!"

"More stories?" Luce asked.

"Another day," Chris saved her, "It's a story for another day."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0—0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"It looks so empty out there now," Clary said while she sat at the kitchen, looking through the glass sliding doors to their dark backyard. It was completely dark out now, and Clary couldn't see the spot where Magnus and Emery had Portaled everyone home about an hour ago. Magnus invited everyone to a special place in Belgium before leaving, and he said he'd send them a Portal, now that he knew how to wind his way through the spells surrounding the house. "You can't even see the tree."

Of course, Clary said this to thin air, considering no one was in the kitchen with her. The kids had gone to bed upstairs, and Chris had claimed he'd take a shower after he'd tucked Rhine in, so she was all on her own. There was always someone around to talk to, so whenever there wasn't anyone around, Clary still felt the urge to speak to someone. Even if it only meant the sound of her own voice bouncing off of the walls.

She sighed, leaning back in her seat and glancing around the kitchen. At first when they moved in, Clary had to admit to being more than a little homesick. She missed the old apartment, with her room with its window ledge doubling as a seat, the training turret (Oh man she missed that turret) even the basement with all its weirdness. Despite that, she found this home to be a lot more, homier, cozier. Perhaps it was the stone walls with its climbable rocks (which Clary had to keep an eye on at all times because Luce and Oz would tend to start rock climbing competitions on) or its fireplace that lit up on its own during colder winter days or if the house decided to go somewhere more up north. Maybe it was because every day she sees four little kids growing up and that makes the house mean more to her, or because it was a house that they all chose together, she wasn't sure, but she loved it. Walking up the front wooden steps, stepping across the front porch you entered through a large wooden door with a brass doorknob, and entered through a hallway with rooms on either side, a rug running straight through the middle of it. At the end of the hallway was a beautiful polished staircase, the wood glowing like dew on a leaf in the early morning. On the left side of the staircase was the living room, with its U shaped sofa settled in front of the fireplace, a window seat behind it. Next to the fireplace was a door that Chris called the office room. They mostly kept papers on a desk in there, and there was an old computer there too. Mostly it was the kids that played in there, pretending to be business people, taking important calls or sending emails to the president.

To the right of the staircase was the kitchen, a black fridge on the left side, a counter running all along the right side, an island with chairs in the middle, and of course the door leading to the backyard right across from where you enter.

But upstairs is where the real fun begins.

There were bedrooms in the hallway when you entered the house, but no one wanted to sleep there, so they left them as guest rooms. Meaning that everyone had to sleep upstairs.

After having a huge argument about who was sleeping where and who got which room, they settled with the twins having one room, Rhine and Ghayth sharing another room (though Ghayth got Jace's room after Jace left, but whenever Jace comes to stay the night he sleeps with Rhine again) and Chris and Clary got their separate rooms. The reason why sleeping upstairs was strange was because there was no hallway in which all the doors were on either side of you, and you all entered through them separately. Instead, when you climb up, there's a landing with the door to the bathroom, also, there's a door where Clary keeps all of her art supplies and works on her paintings and sketches. It happens to be the room with the stained glass window that she liked so much, but if you keep going up the stairs, you come onto another landing, where there's another door, and when you open it, you come into Chris's room.

His room is a complete square, and each side has a door. Each door, except for the one that leads to the stairs, opens up to the other bedrooms. One on the left, one on the right, and one right across from the entrance. Of course, when you entered the room that was right across Chris's room, there was another door leading to another room, Ghayth's. Meaning that no matter what, if you had to go downstairs for any reason, you had to get past Chris first. Good thing Clary's room has its own bathroom, or else she would be in big trouble.

Chris originally called this his room because if the Clave were to ever find him, they've have to get past him before getting to everyone else. At first it was sort of strange having to live like that, but things got pretty normal pretty soon. And Rhine liked it because it meant it she ever got a nightmare she was only a door away from Chris, but that also meant that she was also only a door away from Chris.

Stretching her legs out under the table, Clary let her head roll back until she was staring at the white ceiling. In her hands she held Simon's present that she's just been staring at. It was four manga books of a manga she started reading called Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) which she's been so excited about reading because she's heard of how kick but awesome it is and she might even show it to Chris to read. As a matter of fact, she didn't know why she wasn't in her room reading it at that very moment. It just felt nice to just sit down in the kitchen on the last few hours of her birthday.

Clary heard the sound of footsteps coming down the staircase, so she tilted her head so far back that she was able to see Chris, albeit upside down. His hands were held loosely behind his back, and he was wearing a gray t-shirt with black pajama bottoms.

"Kids are in bed and asleep," he announced, and until Clary heard the sound of the chair across from where she sat being pulled out and pushed back in, indicating that he was seated, did she lift her head back up to look at him. His hair was still slightly moist, making it appear wavier, and he didn't dry himself properly because there was still some water on his forearms, which were casually left on the table before them.

"No they're not." Clary told him, "The twins are probably still up, talking or planning or doing whatever."

"Do you want to go check?" he asked.

"No, let them have their fun." She answered, fingering through the manga.

"What's that?" he inquired, reaching across the table to grab one of the paperbacks.

"Simon gave them to me. I heard they're really good, you can borrow them after I'm done."

He only nodded, his long fingers flicking through the pages. Clary almost told him that he was reading it wrong, that you had to start from the right side and go towards the left, but then stopped herself when she remembered she had something else to say.

"Thank you, by the way, for the party." She folded her hands together. "I was going to tell you earlier but I was interrupted. I really loved that you called them over. I didn't realize how much I missed them until I saw them." She looked at him through a fallen curl that got in her eye.

Chris had reached out, and Clary thought it was to grab at another manga, but instead it had been to push the curl in her face behind her ear. His fingers brushed across her forehead, tickling her temple, before reaching her ear, where the curl was tucked away. His hand stayed there though, and his green eyes met Clary's own. "It was nothing. I know how you miss them, even though you deny it, that's why I called them, because I wanted you to be happy."

"When have I ever said I was unhappy?" she questioned.

"I know you, I know that you're content and glad," Chris said. "But sometimes, not every part of you is happy. And I wanted all of you to be happy today."

Clary's cheeks grew warm, but she didn't bother to hide it. He'd just assume it was tears, but it was something else. His hand near her head, she wanted to badly to grasp it…

She swallowed, "It was the best present anyone's ever given me."

To Clary's discontent, he withdrew his hand, letting it hang at his side beneath the table. "Like I said, no problem. But does that mean I don't have to give you this?"

His hand, which hadn't just gone to hide beneath the table, but to reach over to the seat of the empty chair beside him, came back up in a fist, and when he opened his hand, palm up, Clary's eyes widened.

Emerald green, almost the exact same color as her eyes. A rose almost as if it were blooming. It was…..

"Is this-? But when-? Clary's words were pulled out of her mouth.

It was the emerald rose hairpin. The hairpin that Clary had seen in the shop window on the day that Sebastian had made his offer to Clary.

"If you really think the party was my present to you, you don't have to accept this—" he started but Clary's hand shot out and reached for it.

She took the hairpin from Chris's hand as if it were a bomb. It was as lovely as the day she first saw it, about as long as her ring finger. The emerald gleamed in the light.

"How long have you had this?" Clary asked, her voice unable to conceal her awe.

Chris was watching her with the attention of a person trying to find a needle in a haystack. "I bought it the day I saw you looking at it in the window. You looked like you wanted it, and I was planning on approaching you on the street, instead of in the dark alley, so that you would walk with me. But then you walked away from the shop window, and I assumed you didn't have any money on you, so I went into the store and bought it, but I asked the saleslady to hold onto it until I could find the perfect moment to give it to you. I asked Emery this morning before you woke up to send it to me through the mailbox."

"And she held onto it this whole time?" Clary found that hard to believe. "But wait, why is now the perfect moment to give it to me? Why not last year, or the year before? Hell, why didn't you give it to me while we were living in the apartment?"

"I don't know." He shrugged.

"That's not an answer." Clary smiled. "But thank you. I love it."

"Here, let me help you put it on."

While he stood behind her chair, gathering some of her curls from the right side of her head to be pinned back by the hairpin, she asked, "I saw you come outside of the house earlier today, and with Jocelyn and Luke. What was that about?"

His hands paused on her head, he'd starting braiding a piece of it back, before continuing and answering, "We talked. About us, about how our relationship as mother and son is now."

"Really?" Clary asked, slightly worried, "And what did she say, how'd it go?"

"It went…" he hesitated, making Clary press her lips together, "Actually, it went pretty well. Better than I ever could have expected."

"So…," she fished, "Are you two okay now?"

"I think we're better than okay." Clary could hear the hope in his voice. Despite being in his twenties, she could still hear the hopes of a child that his mother really loves him. Clary wouldn't ever say this out loud to him, but sometimes Chris resembled a child who wanted to so desperately believe in Santa Claus, even though he's grown up knowing he wasn't real. "We talked about a lot of things. Like how when I was a baby she used to read to me to see how I would react to the stories. She said I was too quiet, too attentive. That it was as if I was listening to everything. Like once she was telling her mother, our grandmother, about how I had taken an obsession to sweets, so she hid all the candy in her room. That same day, I snuck into her room while I was supposedly taking a nap, and was found an hour later happily eating all the candy."

Clary laughed, "Sneaky little viper, weren't you?" Then she paused, "Our grandmother, huh? Didn't she die in the fire that Valentine started at Fairchild Manor?"

"Yeah." He answered. "Did I ever tell you how when Jocelyn let you draw your rune on her, that the person she Changed into looked familiar to me?"

"No," she affirmed. "You never said anything like that. Why?"

"At the time I didn't know why she looked so familiar, it kept nagging at me, bothering me that I couldn't remember. So I asked her. She had thought of her mother, our grandmother. She thought of Adele Fairchild."

"Adele…"Clary mused. "That's why she named me Clarissa Adele. After our grandmother."

She felt like she should be sad, like she should be depressed by this, but she wasn't. Instead, she told him, "Huh, looks like I'm learning about my family history from you again. So what else, is that all you guys talked about?"

"Well, actually, did I mention we did all the talking while Luke tried to kill me via evil glares?"

"What?"

"Your, our, I mean," he corrected, "Stepfather, knows how we kissed in front of Jocelyn."

"Oh God," Clary groaned. She loved Luke, she really did, and she was really glad that he finally knew this. But still, the thought that the man who was practically her father knew that she and her brother…well…it was disturbing. "How'd he take it?"

"Let's just say Jocelyn acted as a human collar on him," he added, making Clary groan again. "On the bright side, I don't think Jocelyn is mad at us anymore."

That perked her up. "Seriously?"

"You could even say she accepts us." He said quietly, like he was trying not to wake someone.

But Clary heard it, and now that he was near these waters, it was Clary's turn to drag him over. "Hey, speaking of us, what's going on?"

His hands stopped again, he was now braiding the other side of her head. "What do you mean?"

A normal person would have been embarrassed from asking this sort of thing, but Clary couldn't help herself.

"Lately, you've been really, removed from me. We talk, we hang out with the kids, we help each other out, just like we always do." She explained, "But still. Whenever we're alone, like this, I feel like you try to push yourself away. Like you don't want to get to close to me."

"Clary, I'm close to you right now," he argued.

"That's not what I mean." She countered. "You don't act like you used to before. You don't hold me like before, is it because of the kids? Is it because of what you went through in hell? Is it because of something I did, or something you realized? You don't," her voice caught, "You don't hug me, or kiss me like you used to, like when Jocelyn caught us."

Chris didn't talk for a moment. "I thought I was being your older brother."

"And since when did I ever ask you to be an older brother? I asked it of you once, and that was a long time ago, but that still didn't stop you! And you know what, I didn't stop it then either." She said. "I didn't want it to stop."

That's where she let it all out, unexpectantly. The emotions and worries that she's been holding in for so long. The concerns that he didn't like her anymore, didn't love her the way he used to anymore. That he no longer wanted her. Could it be gone? Was the emotion he had for her only when he had black eyes, and that they had faded little by little after Lilith took them away? Had it only been a demonic emotion?

But if it was, then why did she feel so…

Arms wrapped around her from behind the chair, and Chris's head rested on the place between her neck and her shoulder.

"You know, I never thought I'd see you asking me for affection." He mused. "I always thought I'd be the one begging you. You surprise me Clary."

He kissed her neck, "I hope you can keep surprising me."

Her cheeks colored. "Chris…"

"The reason why I haven't acted like before is because I thought you needed space. Especially when Jace was first living here, we both came to a pact. That neither of us would make a move for you, that we'd let you choose for yourself."

"When did you two do that?" she asked.

"Well, it was more of a mutual thing. We didn't have to actual tell each other. We just knew it was right." He told her as a way of explanation.

"So…so Jace knows?" she squeaked. Though it didn't really shake her or surprise her. Jace was smart, he probably noticed and inferred it.

"Yeah, he knows." Chris nodded into her neck. "And even after he left, I still felt like you needed space to think. I saw how upset you were when he was gone, so I thought that maybe you didn't want to get any more confused about your feelings, so I stood back."

He ran his hand up her arms, "But I'm so glad you told me. You have no idea how hard it's been to just watch you, to stand away from you."

"Jace and I came to terms, you know." She felt obligated to say. "We talked about it before he left. We've gone our separate ways, I still love him, but we're not together anymore. Not like that."

He didn't say anything, only tightened his grip on her, and she in return grasped his arm.

"You know, this isn't much of a secret anymore, is it?" Clary brought up. "Jace knows, Jocelyn knows, Luke, Simon, even Emery knows."

"Won't be long before everyone else catches on too, especially if we'll be seeing more of them." Chris added.

"Yeah." Clary used to feel dread when she thought of the others looking at her and Chris. She used to feel conflicted and scared about what they'd think. However, now she felt nothing but relief. They'd know, all of their secrets would be out of the box, one that she's been carrying around for much too long.

Twisting the hairpin between her fingers, Clary took the braids that Chris had been making, pulled the two of them to the back of her head, and pinned them together so it looked like she had a ringlet of braids around her head held together by the hairpin. "How does it look?"

Instead of answering, he turned her chair so that she faced him, practically lifting it off the ground so that it wouldn't screech against the floor. He stared at her, his eyes looking over her like he was trying to memorize her face forever.

"You know, I asked Rhine what I should have gotten you for your birthday," he imparted.

"And what did she say?" Clary mused.

He placed his hands on either end of the chair, leaning in so that his arms were like a cage holding her in. "She said that as a present, I should kiss you."

"Well," Clary said as modestly as she could, "I do like presents."

They both leaned forward, and their lips met. He tasted of mint toothpaste and smelled like guy shampoo. Without warning, her hands went up and around his neck, making him take his hands off of the chair and suddenly in her hair, tugging at the edge of her shirt, around her shoulders, and on her back.

Clary abruptly stood, no longer liking the feel of the chair behind her. Her arms were still around him, her fingers around his neck creeping into the collar of his pajama shirt, feeling over the top of his scars. She felt a shiver go through him and he moaned slightly into her mouth. He had responded to her standing up by wrapping his arms around her too, and they had been backing up until they hit the counter along the way. Chris had momentarily paused so that he could boost her up onto the counter, making her level with his head.

They paused like that for a moment, their foreheads bent and touching, their breaths ragged, their mouths so close they were practically exchanging carbon dioxide. Her hands were now deeper in his shirt, feeling all the scars and jagged edges, and he held her tighter in response.

"Is this what you meant by kissing you like before?" Chris asked, his voice huskily laced with emotion. His pupils were dilated, and Clary watched them in fascination.

"Better," she responded, her own voice sounding alien in her throat, "So much better."

"Well, they say the longer the wait, the better the victory in the end." He trailed his lips over her jaw, making the sensory nerves there sing with delight.

"Don't brag," she said, "You won a long time ago. You just never knew it."

"Well," he looked at her, his gaze full of held back affection, "Someone should have informed me of that. That was an excellent piece of information that should have been shared."

"I'll take note to have a serious talk with the messenger immediately," Clary teased, "But in the meantime…"

She caught his bottom lip, and he sucked in a breath, making her feel like she won something. He didn't give victory up so easily, for in return his hands teased at the bottom of her shirt behind her back, lightly running a finger along the bottom of her back, making her want to come apart at the seams with bliss.

Her hands captured his face, and his went to bury themselves in her hair. His body was so pressed up against her that she could feel him all over her, her legs encircling his waist, his leaned, muscular chest pressing into her torso, her face practically devouring his face. Clary always read in books and watched in shows that when people kissed it was like there were fireworks in the background, like there was a song playing just for them. That it was all passion and want and desire and love and need and adoration and lust.

Clary didn't know about fireworks or music, but there was a serious want and need going on between them now. Neither of them could get enough, they just couldn't You'd think that after a few seconds a person would need to breath, but Clary swore that she could go full minutes without oxygen if it meant being able to kiss Chris like this.

She didn't know how long they'd been like that, completely detached from the world and entirely immersed in each other, when she heard four little voices piping up from the stairs just outside the kitchen, which we visible from where they stood.

"Ooooooh!" they all teased, making Chris and Clary spring apart like they had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Or with their hands in each other's shirts, which was in the situation the actual case. "Chris and Clary sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

Why did every single child know that rhyme? It completely befuddled her.

"What are you four doing out of your room," Clary said as evenly as she could. She tried to look dignified and authoritative, even when Chris was only three feet from her, her lips probably swollen and her faces flushed. "Chris put you to bed already."

"Rhine wanted to see something, and she insisted we come with her." Ghayth explained, his arms folded across the railing. They were all in the pajamas, and Ghayth smiled wearing an overly large T-shirt and pajama bottoms. "I see why she wanted to now."

"I told you she'd like it, Chris!" Rhine, down one step from Ghayth, beamed through the wooden slats below the railing, considering she wasn't tall enough to look over it. "See, all princesses need a kiss from their prince."

"Prince?" Clary chuckled, looking at Chris.

"Does this mean that Luce and I will have to kiss when we're older too?" Oz inquired, looking to his sister. Both of them were closest to the bottom steps and were barely able to look over the railing.

"Kiss?" Luce asked aghast, "That's gross!"

"I think it's romantic." Rhine admitted.

"You two don't have to kiss," Ghayth told Luce, "Chris and Clary are just a special case."

"What makes them so special?" Luce asked, cocking her head to the side.

"Is it because they're like our mom and dad so now that they have to act like moms and dads?" Rhine inquired.

"Does that mean you two will get married?" Oz's heterochromatic eyes bored into them.

"Go to bed!" Chris spoke against all of them. "Come on, shoo. It's bedtime."

"But we're not tired," Luce whined.

"Besides," Ghayth debated. "How can we sleep now after seeing this?"

"Yeah, my eyes are a little sick now, right Luce?" Oz asked.

Luce pouted her lips and said dramatically, "My poor virgin eyes!"

"What does virgin mean?" Rhine asked, and that's when Clary finally spoke up.

"Unless you all go to bed, you will all be training very harshly tomorrow. No breaks, no rests." She warned. "And Rhine, you'll learn when you're older."

"So? Chris always pushes us when training." Oz countered.

"And when did I say Chris would be the one training you?" Clary smile menacingly.

A chill settled through the children. Ghayth swallowed, "Do you mean, studying, like runes and Shadowhunter history, or like, training?"

Clary chuckled lightly, "Do you all really want to find out that badly?"

The children knew that in the house, despite Chris being the go-to Shadowhunter expert, Clary could be very, very intense. Immensely so.

"Goodnight!" Ghayth announced before grabbing hold of Rhine, all of the scurrying back upstairs to their bedrooms.

"Now then," Chris said, shooting one last glance up the stairs to make sure they'd gone all the way up and weren't just hiding in the bathroom landing. He sauntered back to where she had crossed her arms and legs on the counter, his expression hungry, "Where were we?"

But by the time his hands tried to cup her face Clary was bursting with laughter, her cheeks tinging pink, her hands holding onto his shoulders for support.

"I'm sorry," she breathed, pecking his lips once with hers before looking into his eyes, "It's just that, did you ever think it would end up this way?"

"What? That I'd be tossed into hell, causing you to get badass and search for me and that we'd be living in a huge house with four children to take care of and the Clave on the hunt for us and that we'd have everything solved with our families?" she noticed how he called them our families. Not hers, ours. She smiled. "Oh yeah, I totally predicted that. Did you not see how prepared for it I was?"

"Be serious!" she smacked him on the shoulder, though she was still giggling, "I mean, did you ever think that we'd be this at peace with each other? With everyone?"

She took his chin in her hand, "The day that you first kidnapped me—"

"I did not kidnap, you willfully accepted to come with me."

"Whatever," she remarked, "When you were getting ready to take me home, did you really think I'd just accept being there? That I'd slowly get used to it? That we'd love each other like this?"

His eyes perked up when she said love, and he tried to get near her again, but he grabbed at his wrists, summoning her inner Sebastian so that she was as strong as him.

Sighing that he couldn't get any closer, he answered, "No. I never thought I would be able to be this close to you without you hating me. I thought I'd have to force it into you. That you'd give up. Back then I thought that if you didn't fight back, it meant you loved me. I thought that if you were with me, that you preferred me over anyone else."

"But that's—"

"Let me finish now." He stopped her. "But I quickly learned that wasn't going to be the case. From the moment you woke up in the house, I knew I wouldn't be able to force anything into you. That just because I wanted it you weren't going comply. I knew from then on out that in order for us to be the way I wanted us to be, I'd have to wait for you to see me the way I wanted you to see me. To see me not as a brother, not as a keeper or some evil villain you had to kill. Just…someone you wanted to be with no matter what. For you to want me the same way I wanted, want, you. It was a dream I never knew I wanted fulfilled."

"Well," she looked lovingly into his eyes, "It looks like dreams do come true."

She kissed him again, but without any of the previous urging and passion. She simply tried to convey her feelings and affection through her lips, sending out the strange pulse of admiration and love that pounded inside her whenever he was around through him. In response, he also slowed, though she could tell it was with much restraint. She could feel his hands clenching on the counter edge, forcing himself to not push it, and she smiled through the kiss.

Sighing in bliss, she pulled back so that she could run her nose along his jaw. "Seriously though," she continued, "This is nothing like what I ever thought it'd be like. I mean, I never even thought about having kids. Sure, when I pictured my future I saw myself having one, but I thought that'd be a long, long time from now. Now look, I have four children under this roof to look after, and I'm only nineteen."

"None of them are yours though," he trailed a kiss on her cheek before suddenly asking, "Unless you want kids of your own? Do you?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down there." She reared back, putting her hand on his chest and even scooting farther back onto the counter so that her knees now were on it. "I mean, come on, we're siblings. Doesn't that seem a bit, I don't know, over the top?"

"Clary," he tantalized, reaching out with his arms and pulling her flush against him once more. He looked devilishly down at her, his eyes teasing, and for a split second, her mind made the emerald green of his eyes flash black, onyx. But then the illusion went away as quickly as it came. "Let me ask you this: after everything we've gone through, after all this time and what you've just told me tonight, is there any line you wouldn't cross with me? Tell me right now, and I will back off whenever you need me to."

Clary blinked at his question, and immediately a thousand reasons as to why she should say no, that there were lines she wouldn't cross with him. The only problem was that she didn't give a damn about each any every single one of those reasons. So when her mouth opened up, she said with no hesitation, without a single regret, "No, actually, there isn't."

The moment those words escaped her, it felt like something had popped in her chest, a final weight finally being thrown off. There had always been something wrong about being with Chris, something that made the situation not right. But now, it was all gone. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was wrong with being with the man that stood in front of her now.

A smile pulled at her lips unexpectantly, and when she glanced to look up at Chris, his eyes widened at her look. He'd been about to kiss her again, but he stopped.

"What is it?" he asked, his voice quiet.

"It's still my birthday, if only for another hour or so." She wrapped her legs around his waist. "And I hope you don't find it greedy if I ask one more present of you."

"And what is it?" he breathed, momentarily dazed by her openness. He wrapped his arms under her legs, picking her up off the counter.

"I want to spend the rest of my birthday with you." She told him simply.

"I think I can deal with that," he kissed her earlobe, starting to head his way up the stairs.

"No. Not in either of our rooms." Clary instructed him. "The kids."

"What do you mean…" his question died as it dawned on him, looking at the lustful smile playing on her lips.

"You know, we haven't used those guest rooms." She said against his lips. "Maybe we should test them out, see if they're cozy." She waggled her eyebrows.

Chris immediately changed course, almost ramming into the doorway of one of the unused guestrooms in the hallway, sitting himself down on the four poster bed, Clary still on top of him, her legs around him.

"Tsk tsk," he scolded her playfully, "Who knew the little angel girl Clary could reveal her true colors as a demon at night."

"Don't talk of angels and demons." Clary pushed him down onto the bed, her hands on either side of his head. The moonlight coming in through the window at the head of the bed played shadows across his face. "Trust me, I've been face to face with both of them, and neither were very pleasant company."

His hands went around her back, tugging at her shirt. "Hopefully that means I'm much better company than either of the two."

"Much better." She agreed.

"Clary?" he asked, his eyes on her, full of want, full of her.

"Yes?" she could barely whisper.

"So what does that make us? We're both the same now, aren't we? So are we angels, or demons?"

Clary looked at him crookedly, before bringing her body down, slowly settling herself on top of him. She brushed her lips against his, saying one last thing before they did something that Sebastian wanted done the first night they spent together.

"Honestly, I don't see why we can't be both."

Lacie: well…this is awkward. :|

Clary: A sex scene….you ended the story with us about to have SEX? Really? After everything you ended it with this?

Chris: YEEEEEEESSSSSS XD XD XD :D FINALLY I WIN AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Lacie: I thought it was very necessary. I'm no good at writing sex scenes, so you can all just use your perverted minds and IMAGINE what happens. Who knows, maybe they don't have sex. Open ending! :D

Clary: OPEN ENDING MY BUTT. It clearly means what you just said it meant! And look! *points to Chris* Look what you did to Chris! He's like a whole new person now!

Chris: *dancing * CEEEEELEBRATE GOOD TIMES COME ON!

Clary: Oh by the Angel *runs a hand down her face* Chris get off your high horse. We need you to carry the bigger suitcases.

Chris: *music stops* *he blinks* Suitcases?

Clary: yeah, remember? Fanfic's done. You may have 'won' as you say, but it's all over.

Chris: Oh…right…

Lacie: Wait guys! One more ending, now that Clary is no longer spiked with adrenaline and can act normally.

*she gestures to the spinny chairs, which will also disappear as soon as everyone leaves*

Chris: So, *adjusts the red scarf that he put on and buttons up his coat* this is the end now, isn't it?

Clary: Yeah. It feels like only yesterday Lacie practically kidnapped us into making this fanfic.

Lacie: Actually, it was last year. Now then guys, it's time to thank the people who made this story possible. *looks up at you* the readers.

Clary: I'll start. Guys, thanks for putting up with this weird Clebastian story, or as we put it now, the only Claris fanfic in existence.

Chris: I'm the only Chris you guys, what happens to me when this is all over?

Lacie: Honestly, I don't know. You'll probably go back into the mind of Cassandra Clare. I just don't kow.

Clary: Um…the word 'know' is missing the n.

Lacie: *growls with frustration* I see it. Oh, another thing guys! Thanks for putting up with my incorrect grammar and spelling mistakes and lack of words in a sentence. And in honor of that, I won't even spellcheck this story.

Chris: That's how you know it's a Lacie-Abyss story, when everything is messed up.

Clary: Or when she says 'Enjoy!' before the chapter begins.

Chris: Or when she claims right to me and white haired Clary

Clary: or when she uses her authoress powers.

Chris: or when she yells at us for making fun of her

Clary: Like all those times we get mad at her for making stupid decisions and making us do terrible things

Chris: Or when she procrastinates on updating for way too long despite that she has no life and has nothing else to spend time on

Lacie: ahahaha *laughs sarcastically* you guys are so funny *still sarcastic* I'm gonna miss you guys bothering me in my mind so much.

Clary: Bothering? We're a downright pleasure!

Chris: You should be thankful we'd ever invade your thoughts!

Lacie: Aww you guys know I'm kidding. Hey remember that one time when- *a clock on her wall beeps* oh no.

Clary: what was that?

Lacie: Time's up.

Chris: what time? What do you mean?

Lacie: I mean it's time for you to go. Like right now.

Clary: But what was that?

Lacie: That was a warning. To me. As in you guys gotta go right now!

Chris: but—

Lacie: NOW!

Clary: *puts her coat on and drags her backpack on her* Chris, the suitcases.

Chris: *already has them in hand* I've got them, but why are we—

Lacie: I'm gonna miss you guys so much! *hugs them both eagerly* who knows? Maybe we'll even meet in this same room again, someday. If the readers allow it.

Clary: Lacie….*lips tremble. Nods head and exits doorway*

Chris: *about to exit but Lacie grabs him*

Lacie: Take good care of your sister.

Chris: *he nods* always.

*they both leave this fanfic forever*

Lacie: *looks around walls of the recording studio* Oh god…they're melting. *looks at readers* okay, so you're all probably wondering what's going on. So I'll let you know. This room was only meant to hold up my silly ideas for this fanfic. Now that this fanfic no longer needs ideas, the room, well, there's no point in having it anymore.

Lacie: I don't know when I'll be writing more fanfics, though I can't say I don't already have some ideas in mind…mwahahaahaha….so you can say the reason why this room is falling apart is because I'm going to need space for another one *waggles eyebrows*

Lacie: I'll be taking a break though, from writing. Honestly, I've spent the past year worrying about this fanfic, whether it'll flop or not. So I could use your support guys. Please, please, please leave a review! I know that a lot of you don't review! And that you're all just ghost readers, but that's okay! I WANT to meet you ghost readers! I NEED to meet you guys! I've made a lot of good friends through this fanfic, and I want to meet every single one of you lovely little bumrags until I can hug the love of me into you and more ewwy gross affectionate stuff:D

Lacie: regardless of how you've felt of me….whether you…fellow reader…have been reading this since the very beginning , as in since only chapter one was out, or even if you just started reading this like 24 hours ago (First off, congratz, that's very impressive) and you've been binge reading and now have nothing to do, thank you. Thank you for reading.

Lacie: *studio almost collapsing* I should probably get out of here, shouldn't I? *doesn't pick anything up, only leaves it to destruction*

Lacie: *opens doorway* oh, and guys, keep an eye out for me…I might be back soon.

LEAVE A REVIEW WITH THE WORD Enjoy! IN IT IF YOU'VE READ THIS TO THE VERY END!