Parabatai: Beginnings

Part I - The Beginning of Everything

Author's Note: Hello all! This is a short collection of stories centering around Izzy and Clary's backstory! This collection is in my AU that She's My Parabatai, She Was My Parabatai, and Blood or Love are in! Haven't read any of them? Check out my profile! (But the gist of this AU is that Valentine isn't evil - see the note at the end of the first chapter of She's My Parabatai for more information if you're interested).

This collection is going to take you through five important parts in Clary and Izzy's parabatai journey!  Anyway, without further ado, sit back and enjoy the ride~

When you're as close to someone as I am with Izzy you tend to think you've known them forever. But I didn't actually meet her until we were five. I remembered that day in perfect detail because it was the day my life changed forever.

My parents were having a celebratory gathering. Valentine Morganstern had formed the Circle of Raziel (or just the Circle) years ago before. The Circle's goal was to create more shadowhunters in order to better protect the world from demons. So the Circle founded the Ascended Program. Since the Nephilim's existence shadowhunters have been made through the Mortal Cup but not at this scale. Through the program over a dozen mundanes were trained and prepped for their ascension. Finally, the first group had drank from the Cup and became full-fledged shadowhunters.

This gathering was to celebrate that very fete. My parents had invited a few of their most loyal Circle members and closet friends. They also invited the Blackthorns who would be hosting the newly Ascended at the Los Angeles Institute starting next week.

So while the adults were inside the Morganstern manor sipping cocktails and having small talk the children were in the backyard playing.

I was playing in the backyard with my new friend, Helen Blackthorn. Her parents had been the first to arrive. Her younger brother, Mark, was playing with my brother in the sand pit. They were digging holes with a shovel. What the reason was for the holes I wasn't sure.

I gave Helen one of my dolls to play with and we pretended that they were princesses in a far away land. I was ecstatic to have another girl to play with. Sebastian didn't like playing dolls with me. He'd much rather read books or have our father teach him how to use weapons.

I named my doll Tessa. My mom had a friend named Tessa who had come to visit once. I thought she was very pretty, like a princess.

Another kid arrived, this time a boy with blond hair. But it wasn't as light as Sebastian's or Mark's. It was more golden.

"I'm Jace!" He announced, not that I cared. He pulled the boys away from the sand pit - which might have been a good thing because Sebastian was eating dirt - to play a game called 'demons.' From what I could tell it was where you ran around, screaming. Or at least that's what Jace was doing.

Helen and I continued on playing dolls in the grass. I was just about to have Tessa claim her castle - which was actually a huge rock - when she was suddenly ripped from my hands.

"Hey!" I shouted but Jace ignored me as he threw my doll into the sand pit.

"Rawr, I'm a demon! I eat people!" He shouted as he stomped on Tessa.

Suddenly, the sand pit shovel collided with Jace's head and he burst out into tears. A little girl with black hair was the wielder of the shovel. She pushed the blond down and picked up my doll from the sand. She dusted Tessa off before handing the ragdoll back to me.

"Here you go," she said. "Jace is a meanie. I'm Izzy." She gave me a smile that showed off her missing front tooth.

I took Tessa back from her as Jace ran inside screaming for his father. "I'm Clary." I smiled back at her.

"Isabelle Sophia Lightwood!" A woman that I didn't recognize at the time came out of the house. Izzy's mother, Maryse.

"Yes, mommy?" Izzy turned to her.

"Did you hit Jace with a shovel?" Her mother asked, obviously furious with her daughter. 

"Yes but Jace was being a meanie," little Izzy defended herself.

Maryse shook her head. "Isabelle, you still can't hit people in the head with shovels," she told her daughter. "It's time out time for you." She took her daughters hand and led her away to inside the house where I couldn't see. Izzy had waved bye to me as she was pulled off. 

"Here, Helen," I handed my doll to her. "You can play with Tessa too!" I got up and made my way over to the sand pit where my brother had returned to digging holes with Alec.

"Get out of the way, Clary!" Sebastian shouted at me when I stood in front of him. I smiled before kicking sand in his face. He screamed, his hands failing to protect his eyes from getting sand in them. "Mommy...!"

My brother ran into our mother who had come outside, hearing his scream, to see what was the matter. "Sebastian, what happened?"

"Clary kicked sand in my eyes!" He cried, wiping his eyes on her skirt. She looked at me, appalled. I was usually a nice little girl. I didn't do things like that. "Why did you do that, Clary?"

"Because," was all I said.

Jocelyn Morganstern-Fairchild shook her head. "Go join Isabelle in time out. Little girls who do bad things don't get to play outside."

Instead of complaining I beamed a smile at her before running inside the house. I found the girl with black hair sitting in a corner of the living room. I sat down next to her. "I got sent to time out, too," I told her. She giggled with glee.

"Shh!" Maryse Lightwood shushed the two of us. "You must be silent in time out!"

I looked at Izzy, smiling. We stared at each other for a moment before both us broke out in laughter. In the end we had to be placed in separate corners of the room.

As I looked across the room at her, even when I was five years old, I knew that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. And it was the start of even more then that. It was the start of a relationship that transcended even sisterhood. Parabatai.

Next Time: Part II - The Strength of Two