Lady Midnight

Christmas At The L.A. Institute

"Jules?JULES!WAKE UP!" Tavvy yelled into his ear. The little boy was currently sitting on Julian and he lay in bed supposed to be asleep. His statement was only proves completely right when - upon glancing at his clock - he read the time as 5 in the morning. And even though it was in the far too early hours of the morning he was being woken up he had to give the 8 year old some credit of being so impossibly awake and admittedly rather smug to have ruined Julian's rest. "COMMON JULES COMMON"
"Ughhhmuhu?" Inteligence at 5 in the morning was not a forte of his and the little he may have had left was squandered by the fact an admittedly heavy 8 year old sitting on his admittedly muscle less stomach.
"Jules it's Christmas and Emma said we have to wait for you to open presents!!" Octavians eyes almost comically wide made his expression seem like he couldn't believe there would actually be presents for him. "So you need to come right now so we can get presents!"
"Tavvy stop bothering your brother!" That's when Emma entered his room pulling Tavvy off him and tickling him "you know how he gets when he's overtired" they laughed as she poked his stomach "now go downstairs and make sure everyone's ready to open the presents and I'll bring Jules down soon"
"Okay...but be quick!!" And with that, his chocolate curls were bouncing out the door
"Ughh" Julian groaned as soon as the little boy was out of earshot and rolled over so he was facing away from his parabtai
"Yes I know, know but you just need to go downstairs, open presents and then you can come up here and sleep until dinner.me and Tina can look after them for the day although you will need to come down for dinner" she sat on his bed as she said this her hand on his shoulder thumb rubbing slow circles on the scarred skin there sending shocks down his arm, his legs and into his heart. He moved away from her m pulling on a too-loose shirt and black jeans with the tell tale lingering paint smudges.
"Okay okay but pinch me awake if I have to open anything okay?" She only laughed in response
                                 ~0~
The Los Angeles institute was never really taken seriously by other Shadowhunters. Maybe it was because it was run by 'the crazy old man who isn't for to take care of all those children' maybe it was because of their fairy blood but either way one thing that could be taken seriously was their Christmas tree. At 6ft 5 the tree was a foot taller than Jules who was about two feet taller than anyone else in the institute which in the end boiled down to drusilla sitting on his shoulders to precariously ballance the star on the top most branch, it also involved glitter. A lot of glitter. It wasn't that Jules had some aversion to glitter but Tavvy with glitter was like Magnus on crack as glitter covered each branch of the large tree making up for the lack of snow with small mountains of white glitter clustered into little mountains weighing down each branch and making a small layer of white cover the floor around the tree base. Then there was the lights which livvy had claimed as her domain covering the tree from head to toe in miniature golden lights looking like stars the light reflecting off the many ornaments adorning the glitter covered branches. He had to admit Emma had outdone herself this year with the ornaments as he recognised a ceramic baulball with curling script which he knew said 'cor meum cantabo et caput belli' the Latin translation for 'my head and heart sing for battle' a gift uncle Arthur had given him a couple of years ago. Back when he gave gifts, now he spent liked in his study. They would knock offer him food but he wouldn't make a sound. Some days the house was filled with screaming coming from that god awful room the door still firmly shut, and Julian would have to cover the children's ears and hold them tight to try stop their sobbing as they listened to the half mad screams, such awful painful screams which sounded like someone was getting their heart ripped from their chest. But now the room was silent and no one went neer it from fear and all threat was really left externally of their uncle was a handful of presents he had given them including the or intent. The tree also had other trinkets hanging from its limbs a pasta Angel with one wing Tavvy had given ty last year, Tiberius had been so disappointed to receive a 'ball of pasta and glue' he had thrown it on the floor in disgust and stormed up to his room until livvy managed to coax him out by dinner. Tavvy had cried for hours. The there was the little plastic sword replica dru had made Emma one year etching 'CORTANA' into the clay before cooking and then painting it. Emma had been so delighted.
"JULESSSSSS!" Drus insitant voice broke him out of his half sleep on the couch. He woke up to find Tavvy having ripped open all his presents leaving a small trail of misshapen paper bits finally coming together into a much larger pile at his small feet.
"Whuhu?" He tried to blink the sleep away
"It's your turn Jules!" Dru practically jumped on him brandishing a large square cube rapped in a ribbon too perfectly semetrical to be from anyone but Emma who coincidently was watching him from across the room Amber eyes light with the kind of mischief that could only mean this would be a very good or a very funny present. In the blackthorn fashion he didn't waste any time ripping into her perfectly rapped box finding 3 smaller boxes inside the larger one. He chose the flatter longer one to open first. Upon ripping the rapping off this one his eyes were assaulted with an overwhelming amount of Colours he couldn't make sense of
"And that Jules is the ultimate Christmas present" Emma was laughing her admittedly amazing ass off
"What....is....it...?!" Julian still didn't understand
"Well young uneducated boy this is a piece of fine art. See I painted a photo of myself so you can put it right in the middle of your to impress any visitors who come to your room with my overwhelming beauty and-"
"Okay okay I understand you're amazing" he cut her off rolling his eyes "you know one day someone will think you're being serious" she only blinked back at him as if she had been being serious then a moment later cracked up
"Anyway open the rest!" She shoved the second flat parcel into his hand. Inside was a cd case with scrawling hand writing all over the disk making him once again of Emma's Amazon handwriting she had learnt from her father. He didn't need to guess what this was, it was obviously a mixtape and for some reason he didn't want to show the rest of his siblings this small piece of privacy Emma had given him. He moved on to the last rapped cuboid opening it to find a box like for a piece of jewellery and inside was in fact a necklace. With a long chain just thick enough to be masculine but just thick enough to be delicate it was obviously fairy craftsmanship but the chain wasn't the focal point of this piece, no, the focal point was the pendant a tiny branch about the length of Julian's pinky finger covered in thorns the metal silver the thorns gold, a blackthorn pendant. He reached over and gave Emma the biggest hug he could slipping the chain around his neck an vowing in that instant that he would never take it off.
~0~
Nice lil Bonus Story Because
It's Christmas

The day had dragged on, with Tavvy getting more presents than any 8 year old should drusilla getting more books than any 14 year old should and livvy leaning on tys shoulder smiling as she observed the whole thing. Julian had already gotten used to wearing his new pendant, he could feel it even now rest if against his chest right over his heart an parabtai rune there. He felt rather than heard Emma enter the kitchen, it was like wherever he went she sent out electric pluses in the air Only he could feel and boy, did he feel them.
"Jules. I don't want you to talk I just want a hug" she sounded tired as her arms twined around his mid section her chin looking over his shoulder to see what he was chopping then he set down the knife and turned so she was in the full circle of his arms small and delicate and Emma, oh, Emma. She leaned in closer and it took every atom of his being, every built up sense of self control from stopping him from leaning down and just kissing her right there. Then something caught his eye, looking up he saw a small tree branch hanging from a pot rack
"Em, look! Mistletoe" he gave a small laugh and before he could even look down at her she had stood on her top toes and placed her lips over his.

The kiss was slow and delicious a smouldering ember covered in a thick stream of melting chocolate as their lips melded and there body's became so entangled in a way only those who had known each other forever could do. A small part of his mind was telling him to stop, just stop right now! While the other, much larger part was screaming at the small part to shut up. Her hands lay flat against his chest an he ran his hands through her hair which he discovered was just as soft as he had always imagined. Then he drew away to say five words
"Merry Christmas Emma Cordelia Carstairs" then his lips were on hers once again.

SO YEAH! Merry Christmas guys!! And if you don't celebrate Christmas then happy school holidays!! And if you're none of the above then I really can't help you but yea have a great holidays guys stay safe and have a great time :) xoxo