Hey everyone!

So this was one of those archived one-shots that I started forever ago and forgot about for a solid year before picking up again. My inspiration originally came from rereading CoHF for the second time. I just found the Christmas shopping scene with Simon and Clary to be very depressing, so I decided to write a follow-up to it. And since Christmas Eve is tomorrow, what better time to post it than right now!

There are some very minor spoilers for the Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy stories, as this does coincide with the events in them, but if you haven't read them, no worries. They are seriously minor enough that it won't ruin anything for you, but they are there.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. It's been forever since I've written anything Cassandra Clare, so consider it my Christmas present to you (with a good possibility of more to come in the future)! :)

There was nothing like Fifth Avenue at Christmastime. Of this, Clary was convinced. Window displays were lit up, decorated for the holidays in red and green. Lampposts were hung with giant glittery snowflakes that caught the December sun. Christmas music could be heard playing inside the stores whenever anyone walked in or out. The people of Manhattan seemed almost friendly. The city just always seemed magical this time of year.

She stood at the gate of the ice skating rink in Rockefeller Center, watching the skaters navigate the ice, like every year. A cold gust of winter wind tore its way through the air and Clary folded her arms tightly around herself, grateful for the warmth of her coat and gloves. At the same second, a guy of maybe twenty-five, clearly a tourist, lost his footing-after a rather daring attempt at skating backward in order to talk to a group of girls about his age-and landed hard on the ice just a few feet from where she stood. That's what you get for showing off, she thought, amused, as the girls, clearly unimpressed and trying not to laugh, easily skirted around him.

"Ouch," observed a familiar voice from beside her. Simon had reappeared, having left her to buy them the hot chocolates he currently held in his hands. He handed her one and she took it gratefully as the stranger picked himself up off the ice and made himself understandably scarce. "That looked like it hurt."

"I can't tell which took a harder hit there," she replied, "His tailbone or his ego."

Simon shrugged, "I give the guy points for trying, at least. A solid E for effort."

Clary snorted. "You male types never learn."

"I reject that statement. He was actually doing pretty well. Until that rather spectacular spill, at least."

"Yeah, that kind of ruined it, I think," she said, taking a careful sip of the chocolate.

Simon leaned casually on the gate beside her. "We can't all be born coordinated." She didn't bother pointing out that he hadn't been born coordinated either; that, in fact, he'd only recently become so. Mostly because she knew that would have opened her up to the same criticism, and she didn't have the excuse of ever having been totally mortal to fall back on.

She looked at him then and couldn't help flashing back to a similar scene, just a few years earlier, of the two of them, standing in the same place they were now, doing the exact same thing, though under very different circumstances. She remembered the way he had looked back then: tired and hungry, defeated; the way she'd felt: anxious and stir-crazy from all the months of waiting for something to happen with Sebastian; how they'd both plastered on smiles and tried to enjoy themselves, pretended that everything was fine when, in fact, very little at the time was.

Simon had also been a vampire back then, which had complicated things further.

That had been almost three years ago now, and a lot had changed in that time. For one, the war was over and, for now anyway, some semblance of peace was restored. For another, Simon was no longer a vampire. He was a Shadowhunter now, after two years spent away training at the Academy, and he had the runes to prove it. That in itself had been quite the process, but they'd come out the other side and were all the better for it. Simon was himself again, fun and nerdy and, if not completely happy, certainly content. Being able to eat normal food and look forward to an actual future again tended to do that to a person.

He also happened to be Clary's parabatai now, which, she had to admit, was pretty awesome.

She remembered the time spent after Edom too. The months of despairing, mourning the loss of the best friend she'd ever known. And then the time after that, what had felt like an eternity spent hoping he'd remember, while at the same time fearing he wouldn't. Well, they just made little traditions like visiting Fifth Avenue during Christmas even more special.

Simon caught her looking and asked, "What?"

She glanced away and back quickly, hiding a smirk. "Nothing."

"Uh huh," he said slowly, eyeing her. He looked back at the ice skaters again, and they continued to watch in a sort of quiet, mutual contentment. Clary knew Simon felt it too. That was the thing about being parabatai. They couldn't read each other's minds exactly, but in some way that she couldn't describe, she knew that they were in agreement.

So much about Alec and Jace's relationship, which had before been a total mystery, made sense now that Clary had a parabatai herself. It was something that simply couldn't be explained with words, but Simon had become like an extension of herself, and she knew him better than anyone else ever could.

Despite the satisfaction the trip was bringing her, this wasn't just an enjoyable outing between friends. It was also supposed to be a gift-buying mission. The Lightwoods still didn't care much for the holidays themselves, but Clary's enthusiasm for exchanging gifts at least had started to grow on the younger members of the family. And Jace liked anything she did.

Both Clary and Simon had loads of shopping left to still do and not a lot of time left to do it, as usual. And seeing as they'd bought nothing but hot chocolate so far, they hadn't made much progress, also as usual.

"So," Simon observed after a minute, voicing thoughts similar to her own, "We again find ourselves at the annual impasse that is buying stuff for people."

Clary smirked and nodded. Honestly, she was quite enjoying herself just spending time with Simon in a way that she had long before any of the Shadowhunter stuff had ever been an issue. So much of their time now, both together and apart, was spent immersed in the world of demons and angelic power. Very little about their lives now was ever even remotely normal anymore, but this was one of those rare times.

They did have a lot to do though; the sun was already sitting startlingly low in the sky and Clary had promised her mother that she and Jace would be at her house in time for dinner. She took a sip of her hot chocolate before straightening up. "Okay," she said, looking at him expectantly, "Where to first?"

"I don't know. You usually take point on these sorts of exercises."

She smirked. "Well, what are you getting Isabelle?" They wandered away from the skating rink, heading back down Fifth Avenue.

Simon snorted, prepared as always. "Do I ever have an answer to that question?" Clary laughed. "I panned to help you find something for Jace first and hoped that inspiration would strike from there."

"Good plan. Except I actually have Jace covered already."

He blinked. "You do? Since when?"

"Since we were in Idris last month and I got him those studded leather fighting gloves with the brass knuckles built in. Remember?"

"No."

"Well, I did."

He looked at her for a few seconds before letting out his breath in a sigh and rolling his eyes. "Alright. I'll get her… perfume, I guess."

"That's a terrible idea."

Simon placed his hand over his heart in mock insult, "And here, all these years, I thought you were my friend, Clary."

"I am. But it is my duty, as your friend, to tell you that you suck at this," she replied simply.

"Fine. I suck at this. That's why you're here. Now, why is perfume a bad idea? I gave it to her before and she loved it."

"Exactly. You can't give her that same gift over again. This is Izzy we're talking about. She gets bored way easily for that."

He considered that. "Okay, fair point. What should I get her then? I mean… she likes makeup. Maybe…"

"Simon, how long have you been with Izzy now?"

"See, that's a complicated question. Are we talking before Edom as well as after, or just after? And like, officially or unofficially? Because-"

"My point is, you've been together long enough that you should maybe get her something a little beyond beauty products."

"Alright, so, what then? Jewelry?"

"Yes!" Clary answered, grabbing his gloved hand and dragging him to a stop at a crosswalk in order to get to the Tiffany's across the street, "Perfect. That's a good idea."

"See, I do have those at times," Simon said.

Clary snorted. "Yeah, I'm sure it had nothing to do with me helping you along there."

"Nope."

She rolled her eyes, smiling, as they walked into the jewelry store. Row after row of lighted display cases shone under the bright lights coming from every which way, making the hundreds upon hundreds of precious metals and stones glitter. "You should engrave whatever you give her. Make it special." She looked at him. "You kind of owe her that, after everything."

"Yeah, because the whole demon amnesia thing was totally my first choice scenario," he said, walking over to a nearby display case, "But that's a really good idea."

"Of course it is," Clary said, smiling, and followed after him, glad that even after everything, some things never really changed, and that Christmas shopping with her best friend was definitely one of those things.

Thank you for reading! Merry Christmas!