A/N: Hi everyone, don't be surprised, this was a shadowhunters secret santa gift so the following is just for Mary :D Anyways, I hope you all like it - a review would be nice, as always. Let's see if someone also reads "The Christmas Date" by Kelly and catches my allusion.
Dear Mary,
surprise, surprise, it was me! Merry Christmas to you girl, have a nice feast! I really hope you're happy about this, because even though I asked you a lot of things about favourite characters and so on I wasn't quite sure what to do for you. So I'm just going to stop babbling and I hope you enjoy this.
Love, Jana
"Oh no Simon, just because you're going to be a shadowhunter soon it doesn't mean you need to act like you're one of those insufferable prats!", Magnus sighed.
"I think you meant extremely gorgeous gang of killers", Jace remarked with dignity, causing Clary to chuckle: "You're not that glorious, Jace!"
"Well, I used to be quite Glorious, if you remember that?", he replied sarcastically. It was a huge relief to be able to laugh about that now – the heavenly fire had really been eating him up.
"I meant exactly what I said", Magnus stated, "and maybe I can agree that not all of you are totally insufferable" - he pulled Alec a little closer – "but you definitely are!"
"Seconded!", they all chorused, except for Jace who tried to keep up his glance full of dignity, making Clary laugh even harder.
Also Simon was staring at Magnus awkwardly: "You used to call me Sheldon", he suddenly blurted out. Everyone stopped walking, watching him closely, waiting for more. Moments like this happened all the time with Simon, he remembered something out of the context and then it went on, and on, if he was lucky. But not today.
It was Isabelle who broke the silence first: "To be honest, Magnus used to call you a lot of things, but never Simon", she stated.
"Come on, I've remembered his name ever since we came back from Edom, even when he himself remembered not that much", Magnus defended himself – which rarely happened – with a shrug, earning a doubtful look from Jace.
"Maybe it would've been good if you had at least tried that before..."
"Aaand that's my cue to leave", Izzy interrupted quickly since they had arrived in front of the shopping mall. After Clary and Simon had met up for Christmas shopping last Monday, they were planning on splitting up again – she'd go with Izzy, and the guys... well they'd figure it out themselves. Hopefully.
She released Jace's hand and let Izzy drag her along into the building that was buzzing with people like a beehive with people on their last-minute-gift-shopping. Clary herself only needed a gift for Simon, but Izzy had insisted on her joining them.
"You need a dress for Christmas", she decided now which didn't shock Clary at all.
"You, too, for winter holidays", she replied immediately. Clary usually ended up buying a fancy dress and Izzy with another bunch of nerd shirts and – in this case – Christmas decoration. The two girls had become pretty close after everything that had happened, as if their experiences in Edom had somehow created a kind of bond that wasn't going to disappear, even for Simon who didn't remember a huge bit still, although it had gotten much better. Izzy had also been the one who walked Clary through another thousand of clave meetings along with Jace, through accusations and praises she didn't want to hear.
Praises because she had killed a monster that was her brother – because the truth was, he had somehow been her brother, like a demon in human shape, but still her brother.
"I'd have tried to save him if it had been possible", she had confided Isabelle one day, sitting in her room that was the hell of a mess, "I know the sword burnt him, but if it hadn't, if he'd still been good, I'd never kill him again." It had never been an option though.
And she was grateful, because of Simon, who had always been her brother in a way, maybe in a way that was more important, and she was getting him back, the old Simon that was her best friend. She couldn't help but thank Magnus for everything he'd done, making the memories come faster, more clearly, improving the process.
Her friend had dragged her into a clothing shop on the right, full of the latest fashion stuff so that the redhead started wondering how they'd find a dress for Christmas in here, it mustn't be too fancy for a family thing after all. But Clary had discovered recently that she wasn't annoyed at all that Izzy kept bringing her to places like this, because even though she didn't care as much about the dresses as Izzy did, she did care a lot about spending time with Isabelle Lightwood. It seemed more and more strange how offended they'd been with each other when they first met.
She followed her friend through the rows of dresses and pants that sparkled brand new in the artificial light from the Christmas trees all over the place.
Soon enough they'd gathered a whole lot of dresses and pushed through the crowds to the changing rooms.
"Seriously, whatever gave you the impulse to suggest I wear this bordeaux shiny thing, it surely wasn't your great sense of fashion", Clary laughed through the wall.
"Throw it to me!", Izzy called, not bothering about other people.
Meanwhile Clary had put on an emerald green dress that reached her knees and stepped out to see her friend in the red dress – it really had also been too big for her tiny statue, but it should fit Izzy just right.
When she drew back the curtain, Clary felt reminded of their first so-called dress-up night together, when they went to Magnus' party. Isabelle had looked like someone not entirely mundane then – not that she was – but more like someone from an entire different space and time. Like a moon goddess or something.
Now she was still shining and sparkling in that dress, like another star ready to explode. The dress was a little longer than usual for her and not as sparkly, after all it was for family Christmas, but it made her look radiant. However, it wasn't invisible that her friend wasn't all happy and glittery – they all had their shadows hanging over their heads, ghosts, maybe. Max.
"The others were a bunch of rubbish", Izzy declared now, gesturing towards her cabin.
"Same here", Clary added quickly, banning her former thoughts from her mind. It was always worse on Christmas, but nothing she wanted to think about right now.
"Liar", Izzy grinned, "I only got nice ones for you. But this one's great!", she noted when Clary did a little turn in front of her.
"Yours too. Nice enough for the formal feast as well", she concluded sarcastically.
"You mean prude enough", Izzy corrected her as sardonically with a wide grin, "it just needs some applications." Clary smiled. Applications meant electrum all over the hems, bracelets with thorns, a button that turned into a sword.
"Come on, I still need Christmas decoration", Izzy suggested enthusiastically after they had left the shop with huge bags in their hands.
Clary smirked ironically: "It's not like your room is filling up with that stuff or so, no."
"As if yours isn't."
"As if that's anyone's but your fault."
Laughing, they entered a tiny shop on the second floor of the building where Izzy got a lot – a lot – of needless Christmas supplies: A glowing star for her window, a musical box playing Christmas songs, artificial fir branches, red candles that smelled like cinnamon, …
Until Clary spotted a fir green sweater in the corner where they also had stuffed animals like a reindeer with a name tag that said "Prongs" on it. On the sweater there were some reindeer standing around a Christmas tree, and Clary insisted on Izzy taking that one too: "It's the only thing you're going to get from me for Christmas if you don't take it now", she threatened with a laugh.
When they finally left the shop, an idea crossed her mind, like a new image plopping up: "Iz, can I see your sweater for a second?"
"Why, do you want it for yourself now?", she asked, but still handed Clary her bag.
"Go on, I'll catch up to you and the others", the latter called when she spotted Magnus and Alec standing somewhere near another shop.
Slowly she turned away and drew her stele from her boot. Closing her eyes, she put the stele on the fabric and a tiny sign escaped her fingers, on each of the reindeer.
"Move", she whispered, and when she opened her eyes again, the animals suddenly began to run around the tree, all over the sweater. She smiled, put the sweater back into it's bag and hurried after a confused Isabelle.
"What the hell did you-", she started, and pulled out her new sweater. "Oh by the angel Clary, what have you done! This is the absolute best thing!", she exclaimed with a stunned smile.
"I'm going to get my eyes turn mad", Alec complained sarcastically, but Magnus seemed pretty amazed as well: "There's not hypothetically a chance you could do this again?"