Disclaimer: I don't own the Mortal Instruments or the characters.

Max was sitting at the Institute's kitchen table reading. It was one of the cool manga comic books he had found in that awesome place Clary told him about. Forbidden Planet.

Isabelle had taken him. Then left promptly muttering something about five minutes and seeing the "cute guy" in the deli next door.

Max hadn't minded at all. That place had been his idea of heaven. Everything he could possibly need all in the same place. Endless entertainment, interesting people, all the meat in the world next door. It was incredible. But he knew that if he stayed there he would miss training and all those cool places he got to see when he was in Idris with his parents.

Just as he was starting to drift back into fantasies of comics and ham, his older brother walked in.

Jace looked really sweaty, like he had been out running or training with Izzy and Alec. Or maybe he had been out fighting.

Max was immediately excited. Maybe Jace had met another demon while he was out! Maybe even another huge Greater Demon like Abbadon! He could have even killed it himself! That sounded like Jace. Alec and Izzy said he was the best shadowhunter his age (not that they would ever let him hear them say it), but Max thought that he was probably the best shadowhunter ever.

Max's excitement was short lived though, because when Jace turned to look at him he didn't have that gleam in his eyes. The look that Max associated with happiness or at least satisfaction that Jace always had after a fight. Strangely Jace looked kinda sad and Jace never looked sad. He was always either angry or just Jace.

"Hey Max, whatcha doin'."

"Reading. It's one of those books I got from the place your sister told me about." Max was finally getting used to the idea that Jace had family that wasn't the Lightwood's, but Jace frowned as he spoke and Max wondered what he had said to make him even sadder than he already seemed.

"Mmmnnn.. is it any good?" Jace said with a small smile.

Max was immediately began an animated and detailed summary of what he thought of his awesome new book so far.

"You know, I think that Clary is one of the coolest people I've ever met. She told me where to find all this awesome stuff."

"Yeah. She's great, huh?"

"Yep, and she's pretty. She's even short like me."

Max was struck with a sudden thought.

"Maybe she would go out with me!"

When Max was about six years old he had went on a walk with Jace. When a girl came up and started talking to them Jace had asked her out. When Max had asked him why he would want to hang out with a girl, Jace had told him that when they got older guys got to ask girls out on dates if they liked them. Max still hadn't been able to figure out why anyone would want to hang out with a girl anyway. The only girl he knew was Izzy, and she wasn't any fun. But, now he knew Clary and he liked her.

Jace grinned thinking about Clary's reaction , then frowned when he realized that Max may be disappointed, "I don't know. I think you may be a little young."

Max hadn't thought of that. "Oh."

Jace paused, thinking, then said, "Maybe if you wait till your sixteen."

He doubted that Clary would go out with someone six years younger than her, but he couldn't crush Max's young hopes (like his had been crushed). He reasoned that by the time Max was sixteen he would have realized that he should ask out someone a little closer to his age. Or even more likely he would have forgotten this conversation all together by then.

Neither of them knew that he wouldn't make it to his tenth birthday, much less his sixteenth.

This was just a random idea that came to me right before I went to sleep. I just realized that they never say much about Max's opinion of Clary. Plus I think that it's adorable that Max has an extreme case of Older-Bro-Hero-Worship. Thanks for reading, love, huggles and x's - Shelbs13