Just an idea I got while reading Clockwork Prince. No worries, no spoilers on that series. Slight swearing, but no more than in the series. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns the characters and quotes and Shadowhunter world. Sadly.

Family Rings

"Charlotte doesn't wear a wedding ring," she said. "I hadn't realised Shadowhunters did."

"We don't," said Will. "It is customary to give a girl your family ring when you become engaged-"

-p90, Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

Jace dropped his head in his hands in frustration. Goodness, why was this so complicated?

Maybe it was just the will of the Angel. He and Clary had been complicated from the first day. Every faux pas had been worth twenty, every obstacle had been put on their path, every lie from 'incest' and 'turning evil' to 'actually dead' and 'doesn't care'… The only simple thing had been the way he felt for her, because there was one word for it. Love.

So of course marrying her should be just as easy right? No. Of course not.

He remembered the traditions, of course. How you had to give the girl the family ring, then the rune on the arm, then over the heart during the actual ceremony… He'd been told about a million times by about a million people, including Maryse and Jocelyn who seemed to be pushing towards something bigger while educating him. Such as Isabelle's 'So now you know what to do, go shine up the family ring'.

That was the problem. What family ring?

He'd been calling himself 'Jace' for the last few years. Not 'Wayland', 'Herondale', God forbid 'Morgenstern', yet not quite 'Lightwood' either. The truth was that he didn't know where he belonged. The truth was he didn't know quite exactly what family was. Did that mean he had to right to become part of Clary's and start one with her?

Was family being so beyond familiar with something? Like the Wayland manor where he'd been raised and educated. He could find anything in that manor, to this day. If he were released in it, Jace was sure he'd move through it as confidently as he moved through the Institute. Or familiar, like how he always turned his head when someone said the name 'Wayland' in a conversation.

He twirled the Wayland ring in his fingers. A silver band with horseshoes etched on, so close together that it was hard to tell what they were. Intricate carvings, or simple horseshoes? It had certain fanciness to it. Was that what the Waylands were about? Jace didn't know. He knew so little apart from the facts Valentine had fed him… That family was a list of names and birth and death dates. Not really a family, with memories and traditions.

Or was family about who forged your early life? Who took you when you were a baby and made you into something? Taught you the very first things you needed to know, who took care of the childhood aches and pains, coughs and colds? In that case; the compass needle pointed towards 'Morgenstern' in this family name mess.

No.

He couldn't give Clary the Morgenstern ring, she was the true Morgenstern. Besides, it was Valentine's fault that Jace was in this mess anyways. Yeah, screw that idea.

With a flick of his index, he sent the Morgenstern family ring out of his immediate sight.

That left Herondale. Birds flew around the silver ring Amata had given him when he was still a teenager. It had its own charm to it; like each ring. The birds flying on the band, all spaced out nice and pretty, like real birds in the real Idris sky. He imagined the Herondales as light people with free souls and grace. Was that it? Was that true? Jace didn't know that either.

That left the option that family was an ancestral business. You had blood in your veins, and it marked where you were in the Shadowhunter world. You had ancestors, and that marked who you were. The family tree placed you in a group of people, and under the honour of certain names and events, and heroic doings. Maybe even criminals, Jace really had no idea.

Herondale… those were the two people who had loved him before he was born, and wanted him first. Before he'd been raised by Valentine or taken in at the Institute. The Herondales were as far back as Jace went. They were family. Then why did it not feel… Right?

His sharp and slick hearing made out the sound of something sliding on the wooden Institute floor. He spun around and saw something had been slid under the door. He got up and picked it up, turning it in his hand. He tore the envelope open and a ring dropped in his hand. There was only one pictogram on the part of the ring meant to face the outer world, much like a diamond on a Mundane ring; a log with a long, crackling flame drawing from it.

He read the note, in the long, familiarly feminine writing of a certain Shadowhunter.

Jace you bastard; take the fucking ring and ask her to marry you already

He looked up from the paper.

Maybe family was the people who knew you best and weren't shy to poke at you and remind you of it. Who weren't shy to get in your bubble because you were going to be with them, for better or for worst, whether you liked it or not, so you might as well care about them. Who were always there, always had been, and always would be.

Yeah, Jace thought as faces jumped into mind. Isabelle, Alec who was his best friend at that, Maryse and Robert Lightwood, Max, Jordan and Maia who were the only downworlders to come into the Institute on their own free will to play video games in the sanctuary, Jocelyn and Luke who always set an extra spot at the table for him when Clary was going over for supper... God, even Simon, and Clary as well. That was definitely family.

Jace discarded the ripped envelope by tossing it on his bed, clutched the Lightwood ring in his hand and went to find Clary. Knowing her she'd be sketching in the library. And he hoped that right now, she wasn't with the other members of the family.