Christmas at the Institute

5 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS

"You know what we should do today?" Clary asks Jace. The two are still lying in bed. Jace underestimated the level of crazy the institute would be with everyone here. Just the other day, Julian had asked Clary to take down all the mistletoe because the teens were kissing under it. He had to hold in his laughter until after Julian had left. Then there were the five kids that were always running around and when they were actually quiet, either Lucy or Anna was screaming. All this would be alright if Alec was here also, but he hasn't given another estimation of when he would be home.

"Hmmm?" he asks.

"Go ice skating."

"Raziel no."

"Have you ever been?"

"No..."

"Come on, it will be fun. I haven't been in years. It can't be harder than fighting.

"Yeah, we can ask everyone after breakfast."

Max, and Rafe are already off ice-skating with Magnus. They've been a couple times before. Jace can't tell if Max and Magnus are actually skating or if they are flying, but Magnus is definitely showing off. Venessa, Luke and Jocylin are not bad themselves. Tavvy is trying to ice-skate but hasn't gotten the hang of it yet. Rafe stays behind when he passes to skate with him and teach him how. Mark and Christina keep on falling down, holding hands and dragging the other down with them. They then struggle to get up because they are laughing. Jace isn't sure if they've even made it around twice. Emma and Julian are back on the sidelines, applying more balance runes in hopes it will help. Simon looks like he's been skating before but is not great at it. He's helping Isabelle to skate. Jace knows she's been before with Max and Rafe but has never been good. Clary is also helping Isabelle, and she's better than Simon. Marise is back at the institute because someone has to stay there. Somehow, Diago, Jamie, Dru, Kit and Ty got out of coming and as far as Jace knows, are also at the institute. Jem and Tessa are also on the sidelines with Anna. Helen and Aline are trying to help Mina skate, and they are surprisingly doing a good job. They're staying close to the wall with Mina between them, all holding hands. Jace is on the sidelines himself, holding Lucy watching all this. Max and Magnus slow down as they get closer to the gate, where Jace is. Tavvy and Rafe catch up to them, Tavvy almost taking out Max. Clary, Simon and Isabelle are not all far behind. They start skating again, straight towards Jace.

"Come on Jace." Clary says, offering him a hand.

"I'm holding Lucy, "he says, creating an excuse.

"We can hold her." Tessa says, handing Anna off to Jem, and taking Lucy from Jace. He has to hold himself back from giving a sarcastic thanks. He tentatively takes Clary's hand and slowly steps out on the ice. He's been skating before, but it's never ended well for him. The others speed off again as he and Clary go slow, keeping close to the wall. Jace looks at Vanessa, who is skating circles around her parents. He almost falls, not focusing on what he's doing, but Clary catches his arms.

"Don't focus on her, focus on your feet." Clary advises. They make it all the way around, passing Mark and Christina who were kissing while lying on the ice, without any more mishaps. "Are you ready for me to let go?" Jace shakes his head, but she lets go anyway. She lets him skate ahead and sees he's doing the best he's ever done. "Jace, you're doing it."she says excitedly, right as he crashes into the wall. He tumbles over the wall and lands on the floor outside the rink.

"Omg Jace, are you alright?" Clary asks through laughing, skating to the side and peering over. He slowly raises a hand to give her a thumbs up.

"All good, "he says. Clary skates over to her parents, thinking her mom would have a steal.

"Mom, do you have a stele? Jace tried ice skating."

"Yes..."

"What happened?" Venessa asks.

"Your brother-in-law Jace flipped over the railing."

"He can't ice skate at all." Venessa says, shaking her head at him. Jocelyn hands Clary the stele, and her and Venessa race off to Jace. Clary reaches the railing and launches herself over it, landing on the other side, her sister following. They both go straight to their knees, not wanting to try standing with skates on.

"Hey," Clary says, taking his arm to draw a healing rune, "How are you feeling?"

Better"he answers. "I am never doing that again."

"We've been here for a couple hours, we can go ahead home now, if you want." Clary says, taking off his skates.

"What happened?" Isabelle asks from inside the rink, unable to hide the amusement from her voice.

"I wanted to try and jump the railing." Jace replies. Simon carefully climbs out of the rink to help Clary and Jace.

"Kit! Are you sure it's safe to be up that high with that lake at the bottom?!" Dru calls Kit. Her, Kit, Ty, Jamie and Diago decide to go sledding while the others are ice skating. They wandered around Central Park until they found this good high hill. The only problem is it has an iced over lake at the bottom.

"Yeah, it's fine! The lakes iced over; we can't fall in!" Kit replies, "Ty, you want to join me?!"

"You're sure we won't fall in the lake?" Ty checks, climbing up the hill.

"Positive. "Kit responds. Ty gets on the sled behind Kit and wraps his arms around his waist to hold on. Kit smiles at this. He pushes them off with one of his hands. They start off slow, but quickly pick up speed. Ty holds tighter to Kit, unsure above how fast they are going as Kit is laughing. As they get closer to the lake, Kit starts questioning if it was the best idea to have Ty come with him for the first time.

""shit Shit shit shit" he softly curses under his breath as they get closer to the ice. They skid across the lake and come to a stop on the other side. "Hell yeah! He cheers.

"That was epic!" Ty says.

"That was completely stupid." Diago says.

"Since when has he not done stupid shi... stuff?" Dru asks.

"We do dangerous things, not reckless things."

"It worked, didn't it?" Kit asks beaming. He turns around on the sled and gives Ty a kiss.

"Race you up the hill." Jamie calls Dru, grabbing a sled for them.

"It's on." They both take off, running to the top of the hill. Even with the detour, Jamie gets there first.

"And what may my prize be Miss Blackthorn? "he asks, setting the sled down and hooking an arm around her waist to pull her close to him.

"I don't know, you tell me Rosalie." Jamie dips his head down and gives her a slow kiss. She had her arms around his back.

"Are you coming down?! Or are you just going to stay up there all day?!" Kit teases. After another moment, Jamie releases Dru and sits down on the back of the sled. Dru sits down in front of him, and he pushes them off. Dru screams most of the way down and turns into a laugh of relief when they reach the end of the ice without falling in. They end up sliding into Kit and Ty, who hadn't moved off their sled, interrupting them.

"Idiots." Diago murmurs under his breath.