Hey guys :) So this is my last update of the year. I've got quite a lengthy A/N below, but in case you guys don't want to read my droning on and on, then I want to wish you guys a safe and a happy holidays and I will be back next year xxx

Also, I have posted several new stories, including a werewolf one called Put Your Heart On Mine, and a biker one, Wrong Side Of A Parallel Universe. I definitely have my favourite AU's. Haha. So check those out :)

Clary skipped down the concrete steps of the university. There were students crowding the steps, some of them standing, some of them sitting, quite a few in couples and clearly in no rush to get anywhere. Clary wasn't in any particular rush either, although she was in a good mood, and so there was a spring in her step. She was wearing a short, light green dress that fluttered around her thighs, and a wedge heeled shoes with ribbons that tied around her ankles.

There were a couple of appreciative looks from people as she passed, but her eyes caught on one person, and she ignored everyone else.

"Sebastian?" She called out, slowing her walk. Sebastian's head jerked up at hearing his name from looking at his phone, glancing around before finding her. He gave her a wide smile and started walking over. Clary liked that, how he looked completely comfortable with coming over to her. Some people felt uncomfortable around people they didn't know very well, and she was never really good with them, even though she could completely respect that everyone was different.

"Hey, Clary," Sebastian smiled at her as he leaned in to give her a short hug.

"What are you doing here?" She asked as she looked over his shoulder, wondering if he was there with anyone.

"I could ask you the same thing," Sebastian replied easily as he moved to stand more to the side, leaning against the railing. Clary couldn't help but let her eyes drift over him, the casual jeans he was wearing and white and pink tee-shirt that was tight around his biceps. She wasn't doing it in a way where she was going to make a move or anything, just general appreciation for his physique. She's sure Jace would understand. "Aren't you some big shot photographer now?" His words had a familiar, teasing edge to them, as though they were old friends.

"Well, I wouldn't say that," Clary rolled her eyes, cocking her hip to lean against the railing as well, one step above him and still an inch or so shorter than him. "I took one good photo."

"It was a beautiful photo," Sebastian told her sincerely and Clary blinked at him, a little surprised. "And I've seen other photos that you've taken as well, and they're incredible as well," he quirked an eyebrow. "Although, you don't strike me as someone who needs to be told that you're good at something." Clary blinked again.

"Uh, yeah...Right," she didn't really know what to say to that. "Anyway—what were you doing here?"

"I'm taking classes," Sebastian replied, nodding down at his arm, and Clary noticed a two books clasped in his hand, along with his wallet and his phone.

"In...What?" Clary asked.

"Well, just a class," Sebastian corrected himself. "It's a management course. It's not going to get me any degree or anything at the end of it, just a certificate with a qualification, it's only for a couple of months, it's just in one of the rooms here."

"A management course?" Clary prompted him with an interested expression on her face.

"Yeah," Sebastian nodded. "Um," he twisted his mouth together as he thought for a moment, not too sure how much Jace had told her. "So, obviously I do security work. Bouncer at a couple of clubs a few nights a week and stuff." Clary nodded. "I do security through the day at a hotel in town, The Carmen."

"Ooh, that place is nice," Clary hummed out. She had been there once with a guy she had known from Chicago, who was in town visiting for a weekend. It had been a nice experience, even if they had barely left the bedroom.

"Yeah, that's my main job, I guess I could call it," Sebastian continued. "And one of the supervisors is leaving because his wife got a promotion and they're moving to Chicago. It's not for another few months, but once he's gone, there's going to be a job opening, and one of our assistant managers has been talking about retiring, which means that there's room for a supervisor position to turn into something more. My boss is a good, and he said if I can just get something else on my resume, then he'll make sure I'm in the top choices to get the job."

"So you're taking a course?"

"Yup," Sebastian nodded. "Sort of a bit weird being back in school after ten years, but I like it."

"Ten years?" Clary's green eyes widened. "How old are you?!" Sebastian laughed, his dark eyes twinkling.

"I'll be twenty-eight next month," he answered.

"Oh, shit," Clary giggled. "I thought you were the same age as us."

"Because five years makes such a difference," he smirked.

"Oh, absolutely," Clary gave him a mock-knowing look. "You're already over that hump of halfway to fifty." Sebastian shook his head and just grinned back at her. "Well..." Clary looked back at the books in his hands and then met his eyes again. "I should probably let you go."

"I was actually just leaving, so...I can walk you out to your car," Sebastian offered.

"Or," Clary wiggled her eyebrows at him. "I'm meeting up with Jace for coffee just down the block if you want to come." She knew that he and Jace had had some sort of fight, but then Sebastian had come over the week when Jace was drunk and things had seemed between them. She wasn't sure if Jace had been out to see him very much, because she had been spending a lot of time at Magnus and Alec's apartment the past two weeks because of the project she was working on for him, but she hoped so.

Jace deserved to be happy.

"Yeah, sure," Sebastian smiled easily, and she took that as a good sign. She didn't bother texting Jace, because they were only a few minutes away anyway, and she had already text him before she had seen Sebastian to say that she was on her way. They walked down the rest of the stairs, Sebastian pausing to let her in front of him when they got a narrow part where there were a lot of people blocking the steps. Once they got off university grounds, it was only a few minutes walk until the coffee house where Jace was already waiting.

"So, do I need to ask you about your intentions with my best friend?" Clary asked with a grin, the bounce in her step back, the braids her hair was in jumping slightly against her back and shoulders.

"I don't think I could take you seriously if you tried to give me 'the talk'," Sebastian mused and Clary narrowed her eyes playfully.

"For your information, I can be very intimidating," she sniffed and Sebastian.

"It's a little hard to think that with ribbons around your legs and your hair in braids," he noted and Clary rolled her eyes at him.

"Anyway," she continued, as though what he had just said hadn't made a difference. "I'm sure I won't have to do anything too drastic to you, since it's obvious you're already head over heels for Jace," her words were sly and knowing as she looked over at him from under her eyelashes. Sebastian just smiled back at her, not answering, and Clary laughed, not pushing it any further. When they reached the coffee house, Sebastian pulled open the door, waiting for Clary to go walk inside first, letting her lead the way.

"Hey, Cl—Sebastian?" Jace looked confused where he was sitting down at a seat in one of the corner tables. It was modern looking place, with cushions and scraps of material over everything, and Jace was sitting on the wall side of the table, on a long couch.

"I ran into him at the university," Clary said with a grin as she pulled out a seat on the opposite side of the table, and then purposefully put her bag down on the seat beside her so that Sebastian had to go and sit on the couch next to Jace. They didn't kiss hello or anything, but Sebastian put his hand on Jace's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze before he made himself comfortable, and Jace gave him a small, intimate smile that Clary liked. They looked good next to each other. "And I invited him along."

"What were you doing at the university?" Jace asked, twisting his body a bit to the side so that he was partially facing Sebastian and yet still open to Clary. Sebastian started telling Jace pretty much what he had already told Clary. A waitress came over to get their order and then left, and Sebastian continued. Once he had finished, and their drinks had been brought over and told that their food wouldn't be far away.

"You never actually told me what you were doing there," Sebastian said as he picked up his coffee cup.

"Oh, yeah," Clary grinned as she dipped her finger into the cream that was swirled around in a mountain on top of her drink. "One of Magnus' friends helps out a lot with the fashion students here, and she picks out a lot of them to start interning with clothing lines and stuff. Anyway, they have a show coming up, their final show, and she wants me to document the whole thing, takes photos and shit, it helps with the students portfolio."

"And that's why you haven't been around," Jace feigned an annoyed expression but Clary just grinned back at him. She ate the cream off the top of her drinks first, swiping at some of it with her finger, scooping some of it with her spoon, and not realizing that both men were paying pretty close attention to her movements.

"Don't worry, the show is next week, and then I'll be back," Clary grinned at them and then smiled widely up at the waitress came back with their food. Clary had ordered a huge sandwich which was already pretty much falling apart, Jace had gone with breakfast for lunch and Sebastian had already eaten, so he just got a muffin. Sebastian watched with interest as Clary took the pickles off her sandwich and put them on Jace's plate, and he stabbed the mushrooms on his plate and put them on hers.

They had a very casual intimacy between the pair of them, and it wasn't just in a friendship way.

"So, Sebastian said that it was his birthday next month," Clary wiggled around in her seat, her eyes flicking between the pair of them. "Do you have any big plans?"

"Nope," Sebastian shook his head.

"I didn't know it was your birthday next month," Jace said at the same time, nudging Sebastian in the side. The taller man just shrugged as he shoved almost half the muffin into his mouth at once. Clary kept eating for a few minutes, Jace and Sebastian shifting the topic of conversation to some new TV series that was coming out that they both wanted to watch when her head shot up.

"Oh my god," Clary stated, and with the way her whole body jerked up, she bumped the table with her knees and her fork slid off where it was balancing against the side of her plate. "I've got the best idea for your birthday."

"You're sticking with that, huh?" Sebastian asked with an amused tone. "How do you know an old guy like me would be interested in the same thing that you are?" Clary rolled her eyes at the gentle jab at their previous conversation.

"Because everyone would be okay with this fun. Trust me," there was a sparkle in her eye that Jace had learnt to be very wary of.

"Cla-ry," Jace dragged her name out and gave her a pointed look.

"No, no, this is awesome," Clary continued, and she was pulling open her bag and fumbling around inside, obviously not bothered by the fact that half of her food was now completely forgotten. She pulled out her phone and tapped away at the screen, still smiling almost manically, doing a little wiggle around in her seat that she did when she got excited. Sebastian gave Jace a questioning look, and Jace just shrugged going back to his food. Sebastian decided to do the same, although he couldn't help but looked up at Clary every few minutes as she was busy on her phone, but she didn't look up at either of them.

"Are you going to finish that?" Jace asked, although he was already pulling her plate toward him. Clary just waved a hand at him non-committedly, and Jace seemed to take that as a go ahead as he picked up her sandwich and bit into it.

"Okay," Clary said, still sounding distracted, after a few minutes. "I need to go and make some calls," she flashed a smile at both of them as she stood up and grabbed her bag. "I'll get back to you about the birthday thing though, yeah? I'll get your number from Jace," she grinned at Sebastian before coming around to the side of the table so she could throw an arm around Jace and hug him tightly, pressing a sloppy to his cheek. "I'll probably be home tonight, yeah? We could do dinner and a movie?"

"Uh," Jace looked across at Sebastian, wetting his lips with his tongue before looking back at Clary. "I'm not actually going to be home." Jace actually sounded nervous, although Clary didn't pick up on it, she was clearly distracted.

"That's totally fine," Clary smirked over at Sebastian before she was skipping out of the store.

"Did she just leave the bill for us to pick up?" Sebastian asked in an amused tone.

"That happens a lot," Jace rolled his eyes affectionately. "But she more than makes up for it. I don't pay rent, and when there's shit that needs to be fixed around the house or anything, she never tells me, she just pays to get it fixed. Sometimes I realize and transfer her money, sometimes I don't and she just doesn't care."

"Shit," Sebastian quirked an eyebrow. "If she's covering the rent on that place all by herself, then she must be making some damn good money."

"Oh, nah, place is her dads. Was her dads," Jace corrected himself. "He died a couple of years ago and left the place to Clary and her brother. Neither of them have...Particularly good memories with him, and so I don't think either of them really wanted to take the place. But after we finished university and moved back here, Clary decided she might as well take the place, and she asked me to move in with her."

"Did her parents die around the same time?" Sebastian prompted. "I remember you saying that her mum died a few years ago as well."

"They died within a year of each other—two completely unrelated causes. Her mother died in a car accident and her dad had cancer that they caught far too late. She was closer to her mum than she was to her dad, so Jocelyn dying impacted her a lot more," Jace shrugged a shoulder. "She doesn't like talking about it much, though. Either of them."

"I can understand that. Parents can cause all kinds of messy shit in your head," Sebastian murmured, picking up his coffee cup and finishing off its contents. Jace raised an eyebrow at Sebastian, waiting for him to go on, but he didn't, so Jace didn't push it.

"Her brother doesn't care that she has the house, he lives in Las Vegas with his girlfriend. Both their parents left them money as well, so they agreed he got most of that, since she got the house, which Clary was totally fine with. Money doesn't really register on the scale of things that Clary wants," Jace pushed away the two plates in front of him, leaning back into the couch.

"You've said before that Clary just wants to be happy. To do what makes her happy, and be happy with her friends and family," Sebastian said quietly and Jace nodded, a small smile on his face.

"Pretty much," Jace nodded and smiled.

"You seem to make her happy," Sebastian commented. Jace's smile faltered and he shot a look over at Sebastian, but the taller man didn't say anything else, just let the words hang in the air. "So," Sebastian reached out and spread his hand out on Jace's thigh. "You got any idea what Clary has got planned for my birthday? I was honestly going to be totally fine with just going out for drinks or something."

"Yeah, that's not going to happen now," Jace snorted, and he let his hand fall from the tap to overlap Sebastian's. "Once Clary set's her mind to something, it tends to get a little out of hand."

"Should I be worried?" Sebastian asked with a laugh.

"It's usually a good out of hand," Jace assured him, giving his hand a squeeze. "Usually." Sebastian shook his head and then looked at Jace with a gleam in his eye.

"You're not going home tonight, huh?" He asked.

"You got any other plans that I would interrupting if I came over?" Jace laced his fingers through Sebastian's.

"None at all."

So usually this is the point where I tell you guys some movies and songs that I'm super into. Since this is my last post, I had some other things I wanted to say. But I did see the new Halloween movie, and The House With A Clock In Its Walls and Venom, and they were all good, although Venom was a bit of a let down. Also, anyone else a GallaVich supporter? I stopped watching Shameless a few seasons ago, when it started spiraling, but holy shit, tumblr when crazy with the reunion, and that totally made my day. It was amaaaazing. These two boys deserve each other, and I'm so glad they got a very...fitting send off :)

Right, well...

This year has been hard. I feel this year has been bad for everyone. There have been the numerous mass shootings, it feels as though there is just one natural disaster after another and there is the continual, completely legitimate distrust of authorities who are meant to be the ones protecting us. There are so many things that I could write in here and specifically comment on, but I don't want to make this a political statement, just a statement that wherever we are in the world, we are all struggling. There are so many people struggling at the moment, but today, my heart goes out to the people of Brazil, all people in the Jewish community and to the beautiful LGBTQA members of the world, especially the transgender community, and specifically those in America.

There have been good things as well, though! The rescue of the boys in Thailand, the proud, unapologetic statement that Colin Kaepernick's Nike campaign made, the decriminalization of homosexuality in India, the incredible organisation and unity in the March For Our Lives and the utter love and support shown by so many people in this world toward one another. This was just demonstrated yet again in the past few days with the non profit Muslim organisations who set up the online funding for those in the Jewish community affected by this one of the most recent horrific attacks.

This year has also been hard for myself personally, as I'm sure some of you are aware from my posts. My mental health is probably the worst it's ever been, I'm dealing with some relationship issues with my husband, I lost the friendship of someone that I considered very close after a betrayal that left me spinning and over the past few months, it's been the one year anniversary of the deaths of three people, who all died within a month of each other. I consider myself pretty open with you guys about my problems, and a big reason for that is because I know how lonely this huge world can feel sometimes. I just hope that with me putting myself out there, if you guys are dealing with something similar, then hopefully you know you're not alone. While I don't always have the best words, if any of you ever want to PM me just to get things off your chest, I'm here. I don't always know what to say, but sometimes just putting your problems into words can help, and I am more than happy to be that person for any of you xx

Alright.

Well.

That was all very intense, but I felt it was necessary. I'm sorry if it felt as though I was crossing a line with any of it, but that's why I said at the top that if you didn't want to read all of this, just read by first authors note!

Anyway.

I hope every single one of you has a safe and incredible and happy holidays with the people you love the most, and I will be back next year, probably early February. Here's to a better next year xx