Title: another me, another you
Fandom: shadowhunters
Rating: teen
Length: ~530w
Content notes: alternate universe, mentions of character deaths

“What about the happiest universe?” Izzy asks. “Not for me or us, but everyone?”

Meliorn's fingers weave through the air, water trailing them. “Are you sure? It is very different yet eerily similar to our universe.”

Izzy cocks her head, “It's subjectively the best though for us. For other universes, our other favorites would be different.”

“Of course.”

“Okay, then yes.”

Meliorn lifts his fingers up, and the water turns into a small sheet between them, turning less and less translucent as figures appear. And Izzy squints, leaning forward as she spots her other self in Magnus's lair. The rooms are much brighter, louder with more reds and purples.

“I can't believe you said that in front of my mother!” Izzy says, shaking her head and applying golden polish to Magnus's nails.

“Just wait until she realizes Alec's in love with a man,” Magnus offers.

“She still thinks he'll 'get over that seelie knight phase',” Izzy says, wincing.

“More like get under, I wasn't sure they were going to stop making out before Maryse had an aneurysm.”

Izzy laughs, finishing Magnus's second pinkie and closing the bottle of nail polish. Magnus holds his hands out before himself, turning them to admire their shimmer.

“Very well done,” he says, “I think you deserve a reward.”

Magnus leans closer, and Izzy backs up. “Ah-ah,” she says teasingly, “not while your nails are wet.”

Blue sparks dance around each of his nails, and he says smugly, “Fixed.”

Izzy giggles as Magnus swoops her up in his arms, dropping sticky pink kisses all over her face.

Isabelle yanks herself from watching, and the sheet of water falls, seeps back into the ground.

“What- how- what was that?” Izzy asks.

“A world where Alec was sent on the mission to save the faerie child,” Meliorn says.

Isabelle's mouth opens and shuts a few times, “The mission we met on?”

“Indeed.”

And Izzy can't- doesn't want to process the different emotions swirling in her stomach. “So wait, why is it happier than this world?”

“Are you sure-”

“Yes.”

Meliorn shrugs, “That Alec and that me took certain oaths that enabled the Clave and Seelies to work together in harmony. Valentine has been killed, and balance restored. The Clave is working on new laws to protect downworlders and giving us more council seats.”

Izzy swallows, “That sounds perfect... I don't understand why it isn't the same as the happiest universe for me?”

Meliorn meets her eyes firmly, no trace of a smile on his lips. “It is happier on a whole, not on an individual level. Clary may have killed Valentine, but he took her and Jace with him. Your other self is only happy in moments, not all together.”

“Oh,” Izzy breathes, sudden relief at not living in that universe. And then she feels awful, by definition it was better for everyone, but by the angel- she's selfish and glad she isn't there, and the first thing she's going to do when she gets back to the institute is give Jace and Clary a hug.

“How do you keep watching?” Izzy asks, making her voice lighter.

“Curiosity,” Meliorn says, and a shiver darts down her spine, and she wonders if she ever really knew him.