Magic, Memories, and Malec

At Friendship's Call

"And must I then, at Friendship's call,
Calmly resign the little all
(Trifling, I grant, it is and small)
I have of gladness,
And lend my being to the thrall
Of gloom and sadness?"

- A Valentine, Lewis Carroll

Toby had, since he was eleven, given up on going to Clave meetings. Magnus and Alec both agreed that it wasn't fair on him. Also, they probably couldn't deal with the embarrassment of him falling asleep during the proceedings again. He thought it was perhaps more the latter than the former that was the defining reason. Besides, as they pointed out, Toby could be doing much more productive things; like drawing runes or reading books on the history of the Nephilim. Or, as Toby thought more helpful, practising drawing dragons and reading comic books. In fact, he wasn't so much choosing to sit out; more that he was unofficially banned. One time, not too long ago, Toby had fallen asleep mid-meeting and woke himself up, snoring loudly enough to have forced Jia Penhallow to angrily pause her speech. She had been furious and Toby had been advised to stay away from meetings for a while. He had been ecstatic with his get out of jail free card. Magnus and Alec had been less thrilled.

But what it did mean was that Toby spent a lot of time sat alone the meeting hall in Idris. He would draw and read and generally kill time until the meetings were over. Since everyone at the New York Institute had come of age, Toby had no one to hang out with.

That was, until two more kids appeared.

A shadowhunter woman escorted two teenagers, about thirteen, from the room and they walked out into the hall. Toby glanced up at them, glad to have people his age, as the woman scolded the duo. The boy hung his head a little, but the girl looked defiant. As the woman sighed and returned back into the meeting, the two sat down on two different benches to each other – and to Toby.

"What did you do?" Toby asked, and the two looked up. "I mean, to get kicked out."

"I tend to make comments under my breath." The girl explained, a soft drawl to her voice. "Turned out the guy sitting next to me today was some big important dude, and he heard me."

"What did you say?" Toby asked, agape.

"I may have suggested that the scribe who takes minutes, with the obnoxiously huge pen might have been compensating for something. Turns out the scribe was this guy's son."

Toby snorted.

"And I stuck up for her." The guy added. "Like an idiot."

"Yeah, why'd you do that?" she asked. "You don't even know me."

He shrugged. "It was unfair. Plus, I was sat next to you once, and those comments made the meetings bearable."

The girl turned to Toby. "What about you?"

"Falling asleep."

"You were the guy who interrupted Jia by snoring loud enough to drown her out!" the boy exclaimed. Toby nodded, laughing. "That was legendary. You're my idol, mate."

"Jia was pissed." The girl grinned. Toby matched her smirk in kind.

"Yeah." He agreed. "But it was kind of worth it."

For a long time after their initial meeting, the three of them didn't talk much. The meetings were irregular and infrequent, so any familiarity was lost in the time between their interactions. They mostly kept to themselves; Toby drawing, the other boy reading, and the girl listening to music on her phone. Toby, without their knowledge of his doing so, often drew them. The girl was short and had long ash blonde hair. A soft chubbiness rounded out her face and body, and she wore flowery cotton dresses that drew Toby's attention to her huge pale green eyes, wide in her porcelain face. The boy, on the other hand, was her opposite. His dark skin, eyes, and hair were delicate and Toby thought he looked as if he'd been drawn in fine ink. This was only heightened by how slim and tall and lanky he was. His cheekbones were high and prominent, brown eyes curtained by long dark lashes. They were both beautiful and intriguing, which was all Toby's artistic mind needed to fill pages of all his sketchbook in drawings of them.